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No. <20t> 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 




THE AUTHOR GAFFING HIS OWN SALMON PLAYED ON A 6-OUNCE ROD 



SECRETS 
OF THE SALMON 

BY 

EDWARD RINGWOOD HEWITT 




WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS AND 
DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
1922 






COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



Printed in the United States of America 



Published April, 1922 



MAY -5 1922 
g)C!.A674017 

<VLP | 



^ 



TO MY FRIEND 

AMBROSE MONELL 

THE BEST OF FRIENDS, A PRINCE AMONG MEN, 
AND THE BEST SALMON FISHERMAN I EVER MET. 
THE THOUGHT OF THE HAPPY DAYS WE 
HAVE SPENT ALONG THE RIVERS WILL EVER 
BE ONE OF MY MOST CHERISHED MEMORIES 



PREFACE 

Of all kinds of fishing practised in all parts 
of the world, salmon fishing is still generally re- 
garded as the most interesting. This sport is so 
ancient that a lore has grown up about it and cus- 
toms and methods have become so fixed that it 
seems almost a sacrilege to change them, or to 
attempt anything in the way of innovation. Being 
an inventor by inheritance, nature, and profession, 
I happen to be one of those who have no regard 
for convention, or what others do, unless it appeals 
to my sense of what is right and reasonable for 
the result to be accomplished, and it was in this 
spirit that I approached salmon fishing. My ob- 
ject was to hook and play the fish on an artificial 
fly, no matter how it was accomplished and whether 
I followed the accepted customs or not. In this 
way I have studied the sport for the last twelve 
or fifteen years, and have succeeded in devising 
methods of fishing and tackle which cause salmon 
to rise in any water and under all conditions, so 

[ ix ] 



PREFACE 

that I can safely say that in any of our Atlantic 
rivers, where there are salmon and where they 
can be seen in the pools, I can always raise a 
number each day and generally secure a good 
catch if I am skilful enough not to bungle the 
casts and the hooking of the fish to too great an 
extent. The methods used are largely of my own 
devising, as I had never heard of using a dry fly 
or nymph fly for the salmon before I used them 
for the purpose myself. My friends Ambrose 
Monell and George La Branche have worked on 
this interesting problem with me and have given 
me the benefit of their knowledge and experience. 
We have fished a number of seasons together in 
the Upsalquitch and tried out many experiments. 
In order to understand why it is necessary to 
have other methods than those in use by the regular 
fishermen we must look to the habits of the salmon 
when in fresh water. The science of psychology 
applies to fish as well as to all other members of 
the animal kingdom. To understand salmon we 
must study salmon psychology as well as know 
the salmon's physical habits and life history. Even 
with this knowledge one discovers that the salmon 

[ x ] 



PREFACE 

often does most unusual and unaccountable things, 
some of which will be mentioned in later pages. 
Perhaps it is because the salmon is away from his 
natural home in the sea and placed in a confined 
environment subject to changes from day to day 
and hour to hour. Perhaps these sometimes get 
on his nerves. Although I understand him better 
than most people and am a little like Kipling's 
captain in "Captains Courageous," who caught 
more cod than the rest of the fleet because he had 
a mind like a cod and could think like a cod, I 
am still far from a complete knowledge of the fish 
and only write what I have observed and experi- 
enced, at the request of my friends, for the benefit 
of brother salmon fishermen who have had so 
many blank days in low clear water. 

My experiences as related in this volume deal 
only with salmon of Canadian rivers running 
toward the Atlantic Ocean, and those of New 
Foundland. My fishing in Scotland and Wales 
was limited to one visit, and this was taken before 
I really knew anything about salmon fishing. 

I have endeavored to furnish as much detailed 
information concerning tackle as possible, as I 

[ xi ] 



PREFACE 

find an almost complete lack of such material in 
books I have read. The chapter on the appear- 
ance of the fly to the fish was written in order to 
give the facts on which I have based my methods 
of fishing. In working it out I have obtained much 
useful information which I hope will be of value 
in the future. 



[ xii ] 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface ix 

CHAPTER 

I. The Life History and Habits of the Salmon 3 

II. Tackle 20 

III. What the Fish Sees 44 

IV. Wet-Fly Fishing 66 

V. Dry-Fly Fishing 80 

VI. Nymph-Fly Fishing 113 

VII. Drag and Dropper Flies 122 

VIII. Salmon Breaking Water 125 

IX. Fishing Still Water 128 

X. Casting 132 

XI. Odd Incidents and Accidents Along the 

River 137 

XII. Advice About Fishing 148 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

The author gaffing his own salmon played on a 6-oz. rod 

Frontispiece 
Salmon Scales 

FIG. PAGE 

i. 21 pounds, Restigouche River, New Brunswick. Has 

not spawned before Facing 10 

2. 21 pounds, Restigouche River, New Brunswick. Has 

not spawned before Facing io 

3. 28 pounds, Restigouche River, New Brunswick. 

Spawned Facing 12 

4. 18 pounds, Terra Nova River, New Foundland. Spawned 

once Facing 12 

5 . Salmon dry-fly rod for very light leaders, showing rod held 

in different positions with maximum safe pull on line . 22 

6. Showing rod held in different positions with maximum 

safe pull on line 23 

7. Leader-line knot 31 

8. Leader knot 33 

9. Knot for attaching dry fly to leader 34 

10. Line and leader gauge graduated in .001 inches ... 35 

11. Limerick hooks, actual size 37 

12. Taking moving pictures of flies in the tank . Facing 46 

13. Refraction of light entering water 47 

14. Diagram of fish's window 49 

15. Size of fish's window 51 

[ XV ] 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Photographs Taken from the Fish's View 

Between pages 60 atid 61 

FIG. 

16. Grey hackle dry fly 

17. Brown hackle dry fly 

18. Brown hackle dry fly in motion at surface 

19. Brown hackle dry fly entering window 

20. Grey-winged Miller dry fly 

21. Whirling Dunn dry fly 

22. Live grasshopper 

23. Wet flies with aluminum foil wings 

24. Leaders from below the surface 

25. Shadow of leader on bottom in 5 inches of still water 

26. Shadow of fly and leader on bottom in ripply water 

27. Fingers in water as seen from below 

28. Silver-grey fly in white water, as in rapids or under a 

waterfall 

29. Brown hackle dry fly submerged in white water, as in 

rapids or under a waterfall 

30. As the fish sees the angler. Author at end of tank 

photographed from the position of the fish under the 
water 

31. Erect wing wet fly 

32. Brown hackle dry fly carrying bubbles 

33. Whirling Dunn dry fly submerged carrying bubbles 

34. Aluminum foil showing reflection, against dark and 

light bottom, reflected on the surface 



[ xvi ] 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



The Author and His Son Dry-Fly Fishing in Slow Water 

TIG. PAGE 

35. A perfect dry-fly cast for salmon .... Facing 82 

36. A poor dry-fly cast for salmon " 82 

37. Dry-fly fishing with curl in leader 94 

Rise of a 24-PouND Salmon to a Dry Fly 

Between pages 108 and ioq 

38. Dry fly floating down-stream 

39. Beginning of the rise 

40. Head makes splash 

41. Head throws water 

42. Tail begins to throw water 

43. Tail throws water, head descending 

44. Beginning of the strike 

45. Striking 

46. Striking hard 

47. Hooked and going up-stream 

48. The author losing a salmon off the gaff . . Facing 114 

49. The salmon makes us hurry down-stream before all the 

line is out Facing 118 

50. Mr. La Branche checking back cast at just the right 

point for a perfect cast Facing 132 

51. Mr. La Branche checking forward cast at exactly the 

right point for the dry fly to fall lightly . Facing 132 

52. Miss Lucy Hewitt holding salmon at the safe angle to 

save leader Facing 148 

53. Miss Lucy Hewitt holding salmon at too low an angle. 

May break leader Facing 148 



[ xvii ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 



CHAPTER I 

THE LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS OF THE 

SALMON 

Salmon come into fresh-water rivers only to 
spawn. When they first arrive from the sea the 
melt and roe are only partly developed, and it 
takes from three to six months in our rivers to 
grow these up to the point where they are ready 
to function. During this period the fish is be- 
lieved to eat nothing, and the stomach shrinks in 
size and loses all digestive power. The salmon 
draws his energy during this long fast from the 
fat stored between the flakes of the flesh and just 
under the skin. He loses weight constantly dur- 
ing the time he is in fresh water. A fish weighing 
thirty-five pounds in June will not weigh over 
twenty to twenty-five pounds when he is ready to 
spawn — perhaps even less. 

Spawning takes place in our Eastern fresh-water 
rivers and streams usually in October and early 
November. The eggs wash into the crevices 
between the stones, and are mostly covered up 
with gravel and small stones by the action of the 

[ 3 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

tail of the female. After spawning, most of the 
spent fish find their way to the sea in a greatly 
emaciated condition. Some fish remain in the 
larger pools of some rivers until spring, and are 
known as kelts, or black salmon; these go to the 
sea the following May or June. 

The eggs hatch in ninety to one hundred and 
twenty days, and the small parr, or young salmon, 
lie among the stones with the egg-sack being slowly 
absorbed into the body for about a month before 
they begin to feed on insect life. I believe the 
habits formed by the parr have a profound influ- 
ence on its behavior on its return to fresh water 
as an adult fish. Any one watching the little parr, 
along the shores of the river and in the little back 
waters and shallow pockets, will be struck with 
the way they take small insects. This summer I 
sat on the beach and watched some of them care- 
fully. They were about one and one-quarter to 
one and one-half inches long, and were in about 
four inches of water. Most of the time they rested 
close to the bottom just moving their fins. Every 
little while they darted out a few inches and seized 
some small insect in the water which I could not 
see at all. The rush was swift, just like that of 
an adult salmon for a fly. They then returned 

[ 4 ] 



LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS 

to their former position in the current, protected 
by the backwater of the stones on the bottom. 
They behave exactly as a large salmon does when 
it takes a wet fly. 

Toward evening parr may be seen taking small 
flies and other insects from the surface. They 
come up and make a round ring on the surface 
just as do the large fish. Sometimes they leap 
clear of the water. One evening while watching 
them with my son and daughter, we threw pieces 
of straw or very small chips of wood on the surface 
to see what they would do. In many cases they 
came up close to them and did not take them, just 
as the salmon often refuses the fly; in other in- 
stances they seized the chip and carried it below 
the surface, sometimes making off a foot or more 
before ejecting it. This corresponds with the 
way salmon carry a fly in their mouths for some 
distance under water. These little parr were 
getting their education on insects. My guide 
told me this summer that he had several times 
found maple seeds with their little wings in the 
stomach of salmon, and this was the only thing 
he had ever found there. The larger parr seem to 
feed, to a great extent, on surface insects and 
nymphs rising from the bottom on their way to 

[ 5 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

hatch at the top. Toward evening the surface of 
a salmon river is all dappled with the rings and 
splashes of these parr taking flies. In this way 
the growing salmon establishes his habits of feed- 
ing on insect food over a period of eighteen months 
or so. Brain-tracks so firmly impressed on a grow- 
ing organism are not likely to be wholly obliterated 
by a subsequent change of environment, and it 
may require only a very small stimulus to bring 
them to the surface of consciousness. As an 
illustration of the persistence of habits of long 
standing, I should like to tell of an experience 
which is somewhat parallel to the early habits of 
the salmon recurring in later life. For about 
twenty years I used a foot-power lathe in my work- 
shop. It was my custom to start this by pulling 
the belt with my left hand to bring the crank to 
the upper dead-centre, and then raise my right 
leg and start the foot pedal. About six years 
ago I put electricity in my workshop, and placed 
the switch controlling the power at the right above 
the lathe. When I came to start the power I 
invariably raised my right leg as I turned on the 
switch with my right hand. The motion was 
involuntary and almost irresistible. This per- 
sisted for about three years, and I still do it at 

[ 6 ] 



LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS 

times. In other words, during long years I had 
formed a brain-track corresponding to certain 
physical motions, and this persisted in operating 
even when it was absolutely useless. It was on 
reflecting on this matter one day on a salmon river 
that the similarity of this action, and that of the 
salmon taking the fly, struck me. The salmon has 
only two years of habit formation while I have 
twenty, but on the other hand I had thousands of 
other impressions to obliterate it where the salmon 
had only a few. No doubt illustrations in their 
own experience will occur to every reader of mo- 
tions formed by habits of long standing which 
persist after their use has disappeared. Of course 
the human organism is complex, while the fish is 
low in the scale, having no thinking or reflective 
centres in its brain. It is natural that fixed habits 
should be more persistent in the fish. This is my 
explanation for the salmon taking the fly when 
he cannot digest it. When he returns to fresh 
water from his stay at the sea the stomach im- 
mediately begins to shrink and loses the power of 
digestion entirely. This is to make room for 
the growing egg or melt-sack in the body cavity. 
It is always found that salmon ship best if not 
cleaned, whereas other fish keep longer if they are 

[ 7 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

cleaned. This is because there is no pepsin se- 
creted in the salmon's stomach in fresh water, and 
the stomach will not digest itself after death, as is 
the case with other fish. This is the cause of 
ordinary fish getting soft rapidly. If the salmon 
is cleaned, the cutting of the flesh is sure to infect 
the surfaces with putrefactive bacteria, whereas 
if left alone it is practically sterile. 

In our Eastern rivers parr live until August of 
the second summer, when they gradually make 
their way to the sea. In September there are 
very few left. Just before they go to the sea they 
change their parr markings for the silvery appear- 
ance of the adult salmon, and at the same time the 
tail becomes more forked. They are then called 
smolt. I have only seen a few smolt in my own 
experience, probably because later in the year I 
have not often been near the sea. This year in 
July the upper waters of the Restigouche were 
full of large parr about four to five inches long. 
When I returned in August the river was almost 
free of them, and I only saw a few. They were 
working their way to the sea, and probably took 
on the smolt stage near tide-water, as there were 
no smolt in the upper waters. In Scotland parr 
remain in the rivers over two winters and go out 

[ 8 ] 



LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS 

the following spring. The difference in habits 
must be due to selection of those which only stay 
one winter here, because of the very hard and 
destructive conditions in our rivers in the winter 
time. In Scotland there is little ice frozen on the 
bottom, and the little fish have a better chance. 

The growth of the salmon in the ocean is very 
rapid, and has been subject to many studies in 
England, where it has been observed by tagging 
smolt and getting records from the tagged fish 
when caught. They have been known to return 
in nine to eleven months, weighing three and one- 
half pounds as grilse, and in two years as ten to 
twelve pound salmon, and in three years as twenty 
to twenty-one pound salmon or even larger. Many 
forty or fifty pound salmon have been found to be 
returning to the river for the first time. 

It was supposed until recently that salmon al- 
ways returned to the same river, but the marking 
of the smolt has disposed of this theory. Salmon 
tagged in one river have been caught returning 
in other rivers. One fish marked in Nova Scotia 
was caught in New Foundland. It is quite likely 
that the fish which go far away from the mouth 
of the native river to secure an adequate food sup- 
ply may return to other rivers, while those which 

[ 9 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

feed near their own river while they are in the 
sea usually return to their native river. 

Fortunately the scales of the salmon furnish 
us with much information about their life history. 
Scales are composed of layers added on from be- 
low. As each layer is a little larger than the pre- 
vious one it makes a ring on the outer surface. 
Sixteen such rings are made each year and we can, 
therefore, tell the age of the fish by counting the 
rings. When the fish returns to fresh water to 
spawn, he does not eat, and therefore the process of 
scale production is arrested and no rings are made 
while he is in fresh water. The edges of the scale 
become worn, and a mark is formed around the 
smooth base of the scale which enables us to iden- 
tify the spawning periods. 

The scales I have selected for illustration from 
among a large number each show some different 
phase of life and some peculiarity. I have no 
doubt a large number of other facts might be 
brought out by a more detailed study. 

Figure 1 is from a twenty-one-pound female 
Restigouche River fish. The illustration is marked 
so that the rings can be identified at a glance. 
The parr rings are closer together than the sea 
rings, probably because the fresh water does not 

[ 10 ] 







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LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS 

contain as much mineral salts as salt water, and 
therefore the scale promotion is less. The twenty- 
one parr rings correspond to one year three and 
three-quarters months before going to sea. If 
the parr is hatched in late February or early March 
it would have gone to sea in June of the following 
year. This fish was returning to spawn for the 
first time five and one-half years later, and the 
total age of the fish was six years nine and three- 
quarters months. Among the rings formed dur- 
ing the stay in the sea it may be noticed that they 
are closer together at some points than at others. 
That is, not so much scale was formed at times. 
Malloch attributes this to a scarcity of food sup- 
ply while at sea, probably in winter. 

Figure 2, scale from a twenty -one-pound male 
fish, shows twenty-four parr rings. This fish 
probably went to sea in August, and returned four 
years and ten months later. The age of the fish 
was six years and four months when caught. It 
had not spawned before, as the base of the scale 
shows no line. 

Figure 3, scale is taken from a twenty-eight- 
pound Restigouche fish which went to sea at one 
year and three months, probably early June. It 
returned and spawned at the age of two years 

[ 11 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

and eight months, as shown by the dark line on 
the base of the scale. The total age of the fish 
was six years and three months when caught. 

Figure 4 scale is taken from an eighteen-pound 
fish taken on the Terra Nova River in New Found- 
land. It went to sea in one and one-half years, 
probably in August, and returned and spawned 
one year later at the age of two and one-half 
years. It was five years and seven months old 
when it was caught. 

In most salmon rivers I have fished I have 
noticed two kinds of salmon: the one round and 
deep with the head small for the size of the body; 
the other shaped more like a mackerel, much 
longer for his depth and a proportionately larger 
head. The second type salmon is never as large 
as the other, especially the females; the male fish 
of this long shape sometimes reach twenty-five 
pounds, but rarely larger. By observing the 
scales on both types of fish I have noticed that 
the mackerel-shaped fish returned to the river 
early, generally the first or second year, whereas 
the round-shaped fish stayed in the sea longer 
and got more complete growth. The months of 
starvation and hardship no doubt stunt the fish, 
and leave a permanent physiological effect on 

[ 12 ] 



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LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS 

him. In our rivers grilse are always males, while 
in Scotland female grilse are common. This ac- 
counts for the fact that the female fish average 
much larger in size here, as they have not been 
stunted. The formation of the coast and the na- 
ture of the sea food have a great effect on the size 
of the salmon. If when the smolt go to sea they 
find an abundance of food close to the mouth of 
the river, in shallow bays and estuaries, they do 
not wander far out into the ocean or along the 
coast. In the spring when the great freshets oc- 
cur in the rivers they sense the fresh water, which 
is often carried great distances over the top of 
the heavier salt water by the wind, and their 
spawning instinct is stimulated and they follow 
the fresh water and return to the river. I have 
seen them in Alexander Bay, on the coast of New 
Foundland, six or eight miles from the mouth of 
the Terra Nova River, swimming slowly along the 
surface with their back fins out of water, making 
for the river. The whole surface of the bay was 
marked by little waves made by their back fins, 
all going in one direction. In New Foundland, 
on the east coast, food is available close to the 
mouths of the rivers in the shallow bays, and I 
doubt if the salmon ever leave them. I have no- 

[ 13 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

ticed scales in many instances when the fish went 
to sea in November or December and returned in 
June, and did the same thing the following year. 
Naturally these fish are stunted, and such rivers 
only rarely contain large fish. They usually run 
from six to ten pounds. On the west coast, how- 
ever, the bays do not furnish as much food, and 
more fish leave and cruise in the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence. These fish stay out longer and are, 
therefore, larger in general, although it is rare 
to see many fish of over twenty to twenty-five 
pounds. 

The rivers of New Brunswick emptying into 
the Bay of Chaleur show types of salmon having 
different habits when they go to sea. The Cas- 
copedia fish are nearly all large, from twenty to 
fifty pounds. These fish seem to winter off the 
south coast of New Foundland in about four hun- 
dred feet of water, where they have been caught 
in considerable numbers with trawl lines. They 
only return every few years to spawn and are, 
therefore, all large. In the Restigouche both 
types of fish are seen, and evidently some of them 
stay comparatively near the mouth of the river 
and find their food there, while others stay further 
away and get a heavier growth. It is rather 

[ 14 ] 



LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS 

curious to note that the greater number of big 
fish go up the streams entering the Restigouche 
from the north: the Matepedia, Patepedia, and 
the Kedgewick. In the Tay in Scotland, larger 
fish are taken in the nets on the north bank than 
on the south bank. 

The smaller fish go up the Upsalquitch and the 
main Restigouche on the south. The stocking 
done by the hatchery is all done with spawn from 
the large round fish, and while some of the spawn 
has been deposited on the Upsalquitch for a num- 
ber of years, the size of the fish taken in the river 
has not materially increased. Perhaps some time 
we may understand more of these matters, but it 
will only be by careful and observant study. The 
first salmon come into the river soon after the ice 
goes out, but not in very large numbers. There 
is generally a good run in May, and from then on 
they keep on coming until September. Their 
habits are quite different when they first come in 
from those they exhibit later on. They then seem 
to prefer the very swift water, they are more ac- 
tive, and certainly take a wet fly far better than 
later on in the season. It was for this early stage 
of the fishing that the regular salmon-fishing 
methods and flies were devised, and up to the 

[ 15 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

present time no better way has been found to 
catch fresh run salmon. 

When rivers rise due to rains at any time in 
the season, salmon seem to revert to those habits 
for a few days and are easily caught on the regular 
wet-fly tackle. It requires little skill to hook one, 
as he will hook himself if the fly is only where he 
can see it. These are the conditions the regular 
salmon fisherman prays for, not knowing, poor 
fellow, that he is missing his finest sport in not 
knowing how to follow the habits of the fish. 

As the water drops and becomes warmer the 
salmon tend more and more to settle in the pools. 
Some nights they move from pool to pool up the 
river, or they may even go many miles in a single 
night. I have seen them travelling in the day- 
time over the bars, slowly making their way and 
resting every little while. But generally when the 
height of the water does not favor their moving 
on they stay in the pools which suit them. It is 
often hard to discover why they like one pool and 
not another. One year one pool will be full of 
fish all the season and the next, almost empty. 
Another year the conditions may be reversed. 
Sometimes this is caused by changes in the bottom 
due to freshets, or by logs, or by changes of depth, 

[ 16 ] 



LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS 

but at times I have been unable to see any changes 
in the pools at all. I believe it is caused by the 
first run of fish having stopped in the pools due to 
daylight overtaking them as they were travelling 
up. After that each day as new fish came up they 
joined the bunch as the others went on. The first 
bunch acted as decoys. There is a settled belief 
among all guides that if a pool is dynamited sal- 
mon will not stop there for a year or two again. 
I know a number of instances of this, but it may 
not have been entirely due to dynamiting. It 
seems hard to believe that dynamite would leave 
any trace after a winter freshet and ice. 

If one watches salmon in a pool early in a season 
he will notice that they are likely to swim around 
in bunches, up to about ten or eleven o'clock in 
the morning, and seem restless. These fish are 
generally getting ready to leave the next night, 
and you will not find them there the following 
morning. After eleven they seem to settle down 
for the day and take up their positions at the tail 
of the pool or along the ledges. Sometimes when 
it is hot they seem to sleep and no kind of fly 
fishing will move them, but generally they can 
be caught if the fly is presented in the right way. 
Guides sometimes throw stones into the pools to 

[ 17 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

wake them up. Toward evening they again be- 
come restless, especially if they are going to travel 
that night. Sometimes when they are bent on 
going up the river when night approaches they 
will not pay any attention to the fly, no matter 
how it is placed. 

As the season advances and the water warms 
and becomes lower, they seem to adopt particular 
pools as homes, and I have often noticed the same 
net-marked fish in the same pool for several weeks 
at a time. He may never go any farther up for 
all I know. At this stage of the season the regular 
salmon fishing with a wet fly ceases, and few fish 
can be taken except in some very favored spot 
and at certain times of day or when there is a 
change of weather. 

It was this condition which I fortunately en- 
countered on my first three salmon trips, and 
which obliged me to find some way to catch salmon 
when they were hard to take. On the first trip 
I caught one, on the second trip six, and on the 
third, several hundred — I should hate to tell how 
many. Fifty-two was the largest day's catch. 
The Bay men who had failed to get any fish in 
their nets, due to freshets, called me "the human 
net," as I gave them the fish. I was getting more 

[ 18 ] 



LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS 

than they got in the nets, and they were glad to 
get them. I mention these facts to arouse interest 
and study in the most interesting fish we have. 
In the salmon we have a fish changing his habits 
from day to day, and even during the same day. 
He is unstable and never settled. He is a wanderer 
and has the doubtful habits of this class. If you 
want to catch him at all times you must learn to 
know him in all his moods, and know just what to 
do to meet them. Don't ever feel discouraged; if 
there are salmon there it is right up to you to 
know your business and use your brains and skill 
to make him take a fly, and I can assure you it 
can be done if you are good enough at it. I 
don't pretend to be, but I have had so many sur- 
prises in getting fish in large numbers when I had 
almost given up hope, that I am confident that 
we could always take them if we knew enough 
and had sufficient skill. It is this which gives 
salmon fishing a charm all its own. It is a sport 
with an interest not equalled by any other. 



[ 19 ] 



CHAPTER II 

TACKLE 

The tackle required for a complete salmon out- 
fit is far more complicated and expensive than 
that required for any other form of fresh-water 
fishing. I have found by observing many fisher- 
men that suitable tackle is little understood, and 
only few anglers have at hand what they must 
use on the river if they are to be successful in all 
kinds of water and weather. In fact, I have only 
met one man in all my travels who had a proper 
equipment to take advantage of every contingency. 
It is for this reason that the present chapter de- 
scribes in detail what I have found useful and 
necessary to get good sport at all times. 

There seems to be a lack of definite knowledge 
on the part of fishermen as to the power of their 
rods and the strength of their leaders. In order 
to clear up this matter, and make my subsequent 
description of fishing plain, I have taken the va- 
rious sizes of Leonard rods I have been using and 
obtained the amount they will pull in various posi- 
tions when they are strained as much as is safe 

[ 20 ] 



TACKLE 

without danger of putting a permanent set in 
the wood. Of course this point is a matter of 
judgment, but I believe the experiments were 
fairly consistent with the best fishing practice. 
The results are presented in a series of diagrams 
showing the position of the rod and the pull exerted. 
The amount of the hooking jerk was determined 
by striking against a light spring-scales with 
twenty feet of line out, with the rod in the vertical 
position, and with the butt at an average of forty- 
five degrees turned toward the water. It is shown 
in the diagram for each rod. (Diagrams, Figures 
5 and 6, table 1.) 

TABLE 1 



Rod 




Puli. ik Ounces, Maximum 


Sate Strain 




Butt 
Back 
3°° 


Butt 
Vertical 


Butt 
Forward 
60° to 
Hori- 
zontal 


Butt 
Forward 
45° to 
Hori- 
zontal 


Butt 
Forward 
30° to 
Hori- 
zontal 


Striking 

Butt 
Vertical 


Striking 

Butt 
Forward 
45° to 
Hori- 
zontal 


Length 


Wt. 
Oz. 


7 ft. 

8 ft. 
10 ft. 
io' 6" 
10 ft. 
lift. 
14 ft. 
14 ft. 


6X 
7 
7 
11 

18 
25 


3 
8 

10 
8 

12 

14 
18 
22 


3 
10 
16 

14 
16 
20 
28 
26 


7 
20 

24 
20 

24 

35 
32 

48 


12 
36 
28 
26 
48 
64 
48 
64 


18 
48 
48 
48 

88 
112 

80 
132 


10 
21 

24 
24 
22 

3° 
20 
32 


20 
40 
52 
36 
48 
64 
48 
80 



A slight study of the diagram will make it per- 
fectly clear why the tip should be kept up in playing 

[ 21 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 



Rod weight, i}4 oz. 
Rod length, 7 ft. 



Rod weight, 3% c 
Rod length, 8 ft. 





Horizontal. 



Striking power, vertical position, 10 oz. 
Striking power, 45 , 20 oz. 



Striking power, vertical position, 21 oz. 
Striking power, 45 , 40 oz. 
My regular trout dry-fly rod. 



Rod weight, 6*4 oz. 
Rod length, 10 ft. 




Rod weight, 7 oz. 
Rod length, 10 ft, 6 in. 




Horizontal. 



Striking power, vertical position, 24 oz. 

Striking power, 45°, 52 oz. 

Good for salmon with light tackle. 



Striking power, vertical position, 24 oz. 
Striking power, 45°, 36 oz. 



Fig. 5. SALMON DRY-FLY ROD FOR VERY LIGHT LEADERS, SHOWING ROD 
HELD IN DIFFERENT POSITIONS WITH MAXIMUM SAFE PULL ON LINE 



[ 22 ] 



TACKLE 



Rod weight, 7 oz. 

Rod length, 10 ft.; heavy^butt. 



Rod weight, 11 oz. 
Rod length, 11 ft. 





Horizontal. 



Striking power, vertical position, 22 oz. 
Striking power, 45 , 48 oz. 
Used for salmon wet fly. 



Striking power, vertical position, 30 oz. 

Striking power, 45 , 64 oz. 

A little too heavy for one hand. 



Rod weight, iS oz. 
Rod length, 14 ft. 




Rod weight, 25 oz. 
Rod length, 14 ft. 




Striking power, vertical position, 20 oz, 
Striking power, 45°, 48 oz. 
Special two-handed dry-fly rod. 



Horizontal. 

Striking power, vertical position, 32 oz. 
Striking power, 45 , 80 oz. 
Regular salmon rod, too heavy for light 
tackle. 



Fig. 6. 



SHOWING ROD HELD IN DIFFERENT POSITIONS WITH MAXIMUM 
SAFE PULL ON LINE 



[ 23 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

the fish on light tackle. The maximum strain 
in this position is less than half that exerted if the 
butt were held forward at forty-five degrees. In 
striking, the pull is about half as much in the verti- 
cal position as at forty-five degrees. If the fisher- 
man is to use light leaders he must fish with the 
butt almost vertical if he is not to break his tackle. 
That is why it is possible to land the salmon of 
twenty pounds or more on leaders having a break- 
ing strain of three to three and one-half pounds 
or forty-eight to fifty-six ounces, a matter which 
seems puzzling until worked out carefully. You 
will notice on the diagram that there is ample 
margin to do this on any of the ten-foot rods if 
they are not held on an angle below sixty degrees. 
I have included on the diagram a series of rods 
lighter than those I use in salmon fishing, although 
I have landed a twelve-pound salmon on this same 
ounce-and-one-half rod. The diagrams show how 
the length of the rod affects the pull. The shorter 
the rod the greater the pull. The seven ounce, 
ten-foot rod was one made especially to cast easily 
with one hand, and at the same time to give great 
holding power, if necessary, as the butt is made 
a little heavier than usual. I use this rod for wet- 
fly fishing in rough water, where more pull may be 

[ 24 ] 



TACKLE 

necessary to turn a fish or keep him away from 
obstacles. (See chart.) 

It is hard to get a fisherman to strike with the 
rod held vertical, but it can be learned, and as 
soon as this is done he ceases to break any tackle 
and lands many more fish. 

For wet-fly fishing, the old seventeen-foot salmon 
rod weighing up to twenty-eight ounces or more 
is not necessary in our rivers. It is very tiring to 
use and is really no more effective than a smaller 
rod. For two-handed wet-fly work, a rod about 
fourteen feet weighing sixteen or eighteen ounces, 
is ample for any salmon, and you will have a much 
better time fishing with the lighter tackle, which 
will cast far enough for any ordinary fishing. 

The casting-line for such a fourteen-foot rod 
should be of proper weight to make the rod drive 
well, usually of .045 to .050 diameter. Thirty- 
five yards is long enough for the casting-line. It 
should be spliced to at least 150 yards of fine back- 
ing. Linen line is often used and is very good, 
but rots quickly if it remains wet on the reel. A 
fine oiled-silk line should not rot at all. I have one 
I have used for ten years, and it is as strong as 
ever, although I have never dried it. The backing 
should pull about eight pounds before breaking, 

[ 25 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

and should be as thin as possible, so that it will 
offer small resistance to the current when the fish 
has taken out a long line. Sometimes the mere 
friction of the line in the water is enough to pull 
the hook out of the salmon or to break a leader. 
Most salmon fishermen use a single-action reel of 
large diameter and prefer it. I myself much pre- 
fer a multiplying reel of smaller diameter; this is 
a matter of taste. The important thing is to 
have a light drag or click and a light barrel so 
that the reel will have a slight inertia in starting 
when the fish makes a sudden rush. A leader is 
easily broken by the slightest increase in friction 
on the reel. I always go over all my reels and 
see that they are in really good condition before 
I use them. 

It is very difficult to use a light leader on a 
fourteen-foot regular salmon rod, as this rod is 
too powerful and will break the leader often, no 
matter how careful you are. A leader breaking 
at five pounds with the small end about .014 di- 
ameter is about as fine as you can safely use. As 
you will see later, such a leader is too coarse to 
take many fish in low water, and for this reason 
such a rod will not enable you to be successful 
under these conditions. The line necessary to 

[ 26 ] 



TACKLE 

make such a rod act properly is far too heavy, and 
will scare the fish in low water. 

In order to have the advantage of the fourteen- 
foot rod together with the lowered strain on the 
leader and the use of a smaller line, Mr. Mo- 
nell, Mr. La Branche, and I have had a special 
rod made weighing eighteen ounces, but built 
lighter toward the tip. This rod will cast an E 
line .035 diameter perfectly, with fourteen feet of 
leader, and you will see by the diagram that its 
holding and hooking power are well within the 
three and one-half pounds breaking strain of a 
leader .010 at the small end. With this tackle you 
can use these small leaders successfully on large 
fish and rarely meet with breakages. There are 
many conditions on the river where a fourteen-foot 
rod has great advantages over a ten-foot rod, and 
I always carry one of these rods, and have about 
abandoned the heavier type, which I use only for 
very high water and large fish. 

For clear-water fishing the most satisfactory all- 
around rod for the man who casts well is thefive-and- 
three-quarter-ounce, ten-foot tournament model, 
single-handed rod, which weighs with reel-plate 
six and one-quarter ounces. I have them made 
with an extra handle, which I put on below the 

[ 27 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

reel; this should be six inches long with round 
rubber end-piece to rest against the body when 
playing the fish, as the left wrist will get too tired 
during the long fight. I often carry the extra 
handle in my pocket until a fish is hooked. Such 
a rod should use a line .040 to .045 diameter at 
the heaviest part. This will cast ninety feet with 
ease in the hands of an expert, and seventy feet 
for fishermen at all skilful. Ladies easily cast 
this distance. For fishing all day this rod is about 
as heavy as most people can stand without undue 
fatigue. Note the holding power and light strik- 
ing power in the vertical position in the diagram. 
For dry-fly work in very clear low water I have 
had made a special ten-foot, six-inch rod, seven 
ounces in weight. You will notice that this rod 
exerts less strain in the vertical position, than the 
five-and-three-quarter-ounce tournament, and also 
when the butt is back. At the same time it has 
only a little less holding power when the butt is 
forward, and kills fish rapidly. I can use an E 
line, .035 diameter, on it and lighter leader without 
breaking them than any rod I have seen. This 
is the best tackle for low, still, clear water. It will 
cast about ninety feet easily, but will not drive 
into the wind like the tournament rod. 

[ 28 ] 



TACKLE 

For the best equipment for all kinds of water, 
the angler should have all these rods, and the heav- 
ier salmon rod if he is likely to encounter heavy 
water and large fish. This makes a total equip- 
ment of four rods. 

A good reel is also essential, and any reel will 
not do. The resistance to the pull of the line 
when the barrel is full should be two ounces, less 
than this will be likely to allow over-runs when 
you strip out the line. More drag will cause too 
much strain on a fine leader, when a fish makes a 
sudden rush and you cannot give with the tip 
sufficiently. I much prefer the small-diameter 
barrel multiplying-reel, and use reels having a 
diameter of spool when full of line, of two and one- 
quarter inches, and about one and a quarter inches 
to one and one-half inches in length. If thirty 
yards of line .040 in diameter are used and 200 
yards of very fine oiled-silk backing, this will 
just fill these reels nicely. The weight of my best 
reel equipped in this way with line and all on, is 
six ounces. I had to make this reel myself to 
get the light weight. The others run from eight 
to twelve ounces filled with line. I believe I can 
make a reel and line with a total weight of five 
ounces, to do the work, but this would be the 

[ 29 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

limit of lightness. You notice a great difference 
in fatigue, at the end of a long day, whether the 
reel weighs six or twelve ounces. All my friends 
who have handled my rod, with the light reel, pre- 
fer it. The small barrel of the multiplying reel is 
a great advantage, because the pull of the drag in- 
creases as the line is taken out by the fish, and the 
two-ounce drag it starts with becomes four ounces 
if it is reduced to one-half the diameter. Very 
narrow, large-diameter reels increase the pull too 
rapidly for fine tackle. 

Good lines are hard to get and I have made my 
own for some years. Very often the dressing gets 
sticky and this renders the line useless. If the 
dressing is too soft and pliable, it will not stand 
the wear of passing through the guides fast, as in 
heavy salmon fishing. I have several times worn 
out a line in a few days so that it would not cast 
well. In fact there were spots where the silk was 
cutting. A line with a hard finish is best, a finish 
containing varnish. A plain oil-dressing will not 
stand this work. The line must be of suitable size 
and weight for each rod to make it cast properly. 
A line which is right for one rod is often wrong 
for another. Take the line which casts best at 
about sixty feet, without overloading the rod. 

[ 30 ] 



TACKLE 

This will drive into the wind well. Tie a small 
knot in the end of the line and attach the leader 
as shown in the picture. This is the smallest knot 




'_. Line 



Leader eye 





any knot 



?. Snip off 



Noose pulls Flat R « f V'ew 

Fio. 7. LEADER-LINE KNOT 

you can make and it will not come undone. You 
can easily loosen it by pulling the knot in the end 
of the line with your nail. (Figure 7.) 

The leader is the most essential part of the 
salmon fisherman's outfit and the part hardest to 
get. No matter what you may pay for leaders 
there is no assurance that they are good and will 
stand hard work. In order to show what the 

[ 31 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

best grade of gut I have had will stand, I give 
the following tests which I have gotten on various 
lots: 

Diameter Breaking strain 

of gut in pounds, wet 

.006 2-2K 

•008 2X-3 

•010 3-3^ 

•OI2 4-4^ 

■OH 4K-5 

.016 6-6 # 

.018 7-7^ 

.020 8-8 >4 

This, of course, is a general average of very good 
gut. They are not the best pieces I have ever had. 
Gut like this can be obtained if you take enough 
trouble and test it yourself. It will hold salmon 
well. The ordinary gut sold is about forty per 
cent weaker than these figures, and it is hard to 
get gut of .012 to go over three and one-half 
pounds. 

For nearly all my fishing I use a fourteen-foot 
leader made .020 at the large end and .010 to .012 
at the smaller end. If I need smaller, finer ends 
than this, I use three to six feet of finer gut tied to 
this, because when you want a fine leader you 
always need a long one in salmon fishing. In 
wet-fly fishing I sometimes take off four and five 
feet, and add some heavier gut to say .014 in place 

[ 32 ] 



TACKLE 

of the finer end. The gage shown in the illustra- 
tion (Figure 10) is always carried in the fly book 
to measure gut sizes. It is of magnesium alumi- 




Fig. 8. LEADER KNOT 



num alloy, and weighs almost nothing. Figure 
8 shows the easiest and best leader knot. 

In the latter pages the necessity of the fine sizes 
of the leaders will be shown. I consider the leader 
the most important element in salmon fishing. 

[ 33 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

Only a few of the fourteen-foot leaders need be 
carried, say twelve or fifteen. This season my 
son used one leader for two weeks. I used one 






Note this Loop 



—Mote this Loop 




Same Loop 




Pull it down over 
hook eye 



Pull 2^ Loop Jowrt 
back of hook eye 





Fig. 9. KNOT FOR ATTACHING DRY FLY TO LEADER 

for four weeks and only renewed the fine ends. I 
carry a considerable number of fine ends, of two 
to six feet, which can be tied on as required. These 

[ 34 ] 



TACKLE 



run from .006-inch to .12-inch diameter. Two 
or three heavier leaders should also be taken along 
for very heavy high-water and large 
flies; fine leaders will not cast large 
flies properly. This is all that is 
required in the way of leaders. 

The question of flies is one that 
has been fought over for genera- 
tions, and the war is not over yet. 
However, I think I can clear up 
some of the mystery and perhaps 
reduce the number of patterns the 
fisherman thinks he must carry. I 
have found in wet -fly fishing three 
things which seem to affect the at- 
tractiveness of the fly : the size, the 
weight, and the brilliancy in the 
water. Usually, when a change of 
pattern causes the fish to take the 
successful fly, it is either because it 
is different in size, runs deeper in 
the water, or has more or fewer 
feathers on it. I have rarely found 
that the pattern itself is of any importance. As a 
general thing the bright fly takes more fish. To 
this class belong the Silver Doctor, Silver Grey, 

[ 35 ] 



045 
.04 
.035 
030 
025 : 
.020 ; 
0/5- 
0/0: 
OOS ■ 


jN 


l 



Fig. 10. LINE AND 
LEADER GAUGE 
GRADUATED IN 
.001 INCHES 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

Dusty Miller, and Wilkinson. J. J. Hill used to say 
he did not care what flies he had as long as he had 
plenty of Silver Greys. The Jock Scott and Black 
Dose are fairly brilliant in the water, while the 
fairies are dark. It makes almost no difference 
which of the flies of the dark or light pattern you 
use, the size is all important. You should carry 
flies from No. 12 to No. 00. I carry Nos. 12, 10, 
8, 6, 4, 2, 0, 00. I have few of the larger flies, 
and a good many of Nos. 6 to 10. I use mostly 
Nos. 8 and 6 when wet-fly fishing is good. In the 
high water the large flies are necessary or the fish 
won't see them. Under these conditions you can- 
not do well with small flies. For those who do 
not know the hook sizes by numbers, Figure 11 
gives the actual sizes. 

I am often asked by both trout and salmon 
fishermen my opinion on the theory of exact 
imitation of insects in flies and whether color is of 
great importance. In order to make my view clear 
of the various factors entering into the attractive- 
ness of the fly to a fish, I shall arrange them in 
what I consider the order of their relative impor- 
tance. I began on the theory of exact imitation 
and followed it for years; first in the imitation of 
the fly, and next in the imitation of the action of 

[ 36 ] 




M 

o 
o 

s 

M 

u 

5 
w 

g 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

insects, with the manipulation of the fly which I 
still regard as very important. As my fishing 
experiences multiplied and the years rolled on, I 
came more and more to see that neither of these 
ideas proved a complete explanation of the action 
of the fish toward the fly, and I was slowly brought 
to the point of view that the brain impression 
formed on the fish by the fly was the important 
thing. This impression may be made by the light 
effects of the fly in the water, or by the vision of 
the fly itself, or its motions. It may be caused by 
a fly which is an exact imitation of some insect, or 
it may be caused by something which has no re- 
semblance to anything living so far as I know, 
yet such flies not only catch fish, but often take 
more than flies looking more like nature. It is 
evidently because these queer flies either corres- 
pond in their visual action in the water to some 
natural food, or they awake some instinct for 
food by the brain impression they form. I am 
satisfied by my experience to date that we are no 
more likely to take either trout or salmon with an 
exact imitation than with some other kind of fly, 
if it is manipulated to give the right effects on 
the water and is of the proper size. The regular 
salmon flies in use certainly do not look like any- 

[ 38 ] 



TACKLE 

thing I ever saw in nature. I would like to see a 
Jock Scott or Silver Grey bug. We don't have 
them in American rivers, yet these flies are ex- 
cellent here. I do not claim that we know all 
about the subject — we are evidently very ignorant 
on its real scientific side — but I hope the facts 
given in this book will promote a more intelligent 
and rational study of the subject. I do not be- 
lieve it is a very difficult one to completely under- 
stand if we apply some real scientific work to it, 
and so far from reducing the interest in the sport 
it will vastly increase it for any intelligent angler. 
Personally I shall not be satisfied to fish and not 
know the laws which govern the subject. I want 
to know, and I want the fish this knowledge en- 
ables me to catch. I would arrange the factors 
governing the attractiveness of a fly in the follow- 
ing order of relative importance: 

(1) The light-effects of the fly, above and below 

the surface. 

(2) The way the fly is cast and manipulated, 

including where the fly is placed relative 
to the fish. 

(3) Visibility of the leader to the fish. 

(4) The size of the fly. 

[ 39 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

(5) Design of the fly. 

(6) Color of the fly. 

(7) Accuracy of imitation of natural insects. 

It was not until I began to realize the relative 
importance of these factors that I became a real 
fisherman. By that I mean one who takes fish 
on a fly when others fail. 

For dry flies I prefer the hackles tied Palmer 
— that is, tied all the way down the shank to the 
bend of the hook. The gray and brown are all 
that are necessary. They require no special body. 
They should be in a size from one-half-inch diame- 
ter to one-and-one-half-inch diameter, and the 
hooks should be from No. 10 to 6 Penell Limerick 
style. The winged flies which I have found good are 
the Cahill, Rube Wood, Whirling Dunn, Pink Lady, 
and Greenwell's Glory. They all raise fish well 
if properly handled, but they do not seem as good 
as the hackles and are more difficult to keep in 
perfect condition on the water. It is very im- 
portant to have all sizes of dry flies, as will be shown 
later. Erect-winged nymph-flies are very taking 
at the right time, and are often the only way to 
get the fish when they are rolling. This style of 
fly is not usually on sale at the tackle-stores at 

[ 40 ] 



TACKLE 

present, but ought to be soon. I have them made 
in various sizes and with bodies of different weight 
so they will run at different depths. The size is 
from No. 12 to 8 Penell Limerick hooks. Very 
small wet flies can be made to take their place 
fairly well, although they are not nearly as good. 
Wingless nymph-flies may also be used and are 
excellent. Figure 9 shows the best knot for tying 
a dry fly and leader together, especially small 
flies. 

This seems to cover all the tackle required, but 
there are two very necessary adjuncts to its use. 
A mixture of albolene and kerosene, half and half, 
for dry-fly dressing will make them float properly. 
The fly should be dipped in this and then shaken, 
in order to drive off the excess, then cast a few 
times in the air; it is then ready and will float 
for some time if not allowed to go below the sur- 
face. If the fly fails to float properly, rub it 
with your handkerchief to dry it off, and again 
apply the oil mixture. This will generally keep 
flies working well, particularly hackles. Every 
one finds difficulty in making dry flies float well, 
high up on the water — particularly large salmon 
dry flies. It is only with great skill and much 
practice that this can be accomplished all the time. 

[ 41 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

A second necessity is a small box of deer's fat 
for greasing the line. This should be done every 
morning before beginning to fish, while the line 
is still dry. If the line fails to float properly at 
any time of the day it should again be greased. 
It is very hard to pick up a line properly off the 
water if it sinks and the sunken line always dis- 
turbs, the fish if it comes near them. This is the 
main reason why wet-fly fishing stirs up a pool 
and prevents the taking of more fish. A line 
floating on the surface when not directly over the 
fish will not scare them. 

If you cannot have a more expensive outfit you 
should at least have a six-and-one-quarter-ounce 
rod made as described with reel and line to suit, 
and a fourteen-foot, eighteen-ounce rod built light 
at the tip. If you can do so, add to this a light 
regular fourteen-foot salmon rod, with its suitable 
reel and line. If I had to go salmon fishing with 
only one kind of rod, I should certainly take the 
six-and-a-quarter-ounce tournament rod. I am 
certain that during the whole season I should 
hook and land more fish, and have a far better 
time, than I possibly could have with any other 
one salmon tackle, but its use on large fish re- 
quires much skill and practice. I gave one of 

[ 42 ] 



TACKLE 

these rods to Mr. Carnegie some years ago, and 
after once trying it he never used anything else 
for his salmon fishing in Scotland. 



[ 43 ] 



CHAPTER III 

WHAT THE FISH SEES 

In recent years many descriptions have been 
published of the appearance of flies looked at from 
under the water. I do not, therefore, claim any 
particular novelty in the descriptions which follow. 
The accounts which I have seen, however, are all 
in English publications, and are not widely known 
among American anglers, and the illustrations 
are confined to a few photographs. I wanted to 
see for myself how flies really looked to the fish, 
as I never like to accept any scientific fact as really 
so if I can possibly repeat the experiment for my- 
self. In scientific work I have often been misled 
by statements in books which were made with 
great assurance and which on investigation often 
proved not to be correct. The observer had either 
been misled by his experiments or had written 
down more than he had seen or had drawn faulty 
conclusions. In this case it was so very easy to 
get at the real facts that I decided to make all 
the necessary observations personally. 

Experimenting with a photographic lens under 
the water, with the water in contact with the lens 

[ 44 ] 



WHAT THE FISH SEES 

surface, showed the image on the ground glass was 
always blurred, because the lens was made for the 
refraction between glass and air and not for that 
between glass and water, which differs by about 
one-third. A lens could be made for this purpose, 
but it would take much time and expense, so the 
usual method of looking through a glass plate into 
the water was adopted. The plate was set in the 
end of the tank holding the water, at an angle of 
forty-eight and one-half degrees, and the camera 
placed at right angles to the surface of the plate. 
In this way the light from the water to the camera 
passes through the glass exactly at right angles 
and will not be bent or distorted, and a true image 
of what the fish sees in the water or on the surface 
is obtained. As the effects of light, due to the mo- 
tion of the fly, were of most interest, I soon saw 
that the ordinary camera would not succeed in 
catching just the things I wished to show, so I 
decided to use a moving-picture camera and make 
"cut-outs" from the film, which would give more 
convincing illustrations of what was seen. Mr. 
James L. Clark, who makes the wonderful Akeley 
Camera, kindly volunteered to take this difficult 
subject. It was very hard to do because of the 
small size of the flies and the reduction of the light 

[ 45 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

passing through the water and the plate glass. 
The distance from the camera to the fly was short, 
giving only a very small depth of focus, so that 
the pictures were easily blurred. We found that 
the light entering the surface of the water, when the 
fly was above the surface, seemed always to give 
a somewhat blurred image of a floating fly, and 
I do not believe that we can get any clearer photo- 
graphs than are shown. It is quite likely that the 
vision of the floating fly is equally blurred to the 
fish. When I looked with my eyes through the 
plate, the image of the floating fly was never per- 
fectly sharp. I want to thank Mr. Clark for his 
able and generous assistance. The photograph 
(Figure 12) shows the camera and tank in position. 
In order to understand what was seen it will be 
necessary to enter a little into the phenomena of 
light and its behavior in its passage from air to 
water. The diagrams will make the matter sim- 
ple and explain the subsequent illustrations. 
When a ray of light enters the surface of still 
water from above, from any angle except directly 
vertical, it is bent or deflected. This deflection 
is found to take place according to a well known 
law. The diagram (Figure 13) shows an easy way 
of expressing it. Describe a circle with its centre 

[ 46 ] 




*4 
2; 
<i 
£-1 

w 



O 

2 

> 

o 

o 
g 

3 
< 



WHAT THE FISH SEES 

at the surface of the water and let a ray of light, 
A-B, reach the surface at B. Draw a line parallel 
to the surface of the water from A to the line 
H-B, which is perpendicular to the surface of the 
water. Divide this line into three equal parts. 




Fig. 13. REFRACTION OF LIGHT ENTERING WATER 

Extend the line H-B to intersect the circle below the 
surface of the water. Take a length equal to two 
of the parts into which A-H was divided and draw 
a line parallel to the surface of the water from the 
circle to the extended line H-B, equal in length to 
two of these parts. This is the line C-G. Join 
C and B. This will give the direction of the beam 
of light after it has entered the water. The relation 
of the length of the line A-H and C-G to each other 

[ 47 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

is as three to two and is called the index of re- 
fraction; it is 1.5 to 1. in the case of water. It will 
be found, if we lay off the line BE on the surface 
of the water and the line DF below the water in 
the same way, that the angle between DB and the 
surface becomes forty-eight and one-half degrees 
and the angle DBF, forty-one and one-half de- 
grees. As light coming from the water into the 
air follows the same path as that from air into 
water, it is evident that light from below striking 
the surface at an angle of forty-eight and one-half 
degrees or more, being bent at that angle, can- 
not get out to the air as it is parallel to the sur- 
face of the water and must, therefore, be totally 
reflected. This means that the fish can only 
see out of the water at an angle of forty-eight 
and one-half degrees or more to the surface, and 
beyond that angle he sees only the reflection of 
objects below the surface, reflected back from the 
surface as from mirrors. If the water is not too 
deep he will see the bottom reflected against the 
surface, beyond the angle of forty-eight and one- 
half degrees. From forty-eight and one-half de- 
grees to vertical he can see out. He therefore 
sees out through a circular window; the angle 
from his eye is twice forty-one and one-half, or 

[ 48 ] 



WHAT THE FISH SEES 

eighty-three degrees. It is as if he saw out 
through a port-hole surrounded by a mirror. 

The diagram (Figure 14) shows this clearly. 
F represents a fish near the bottom. He can see 
out till he reaches the line AF or A' F. Beyond 



98/2% Light Enters Water ^ 




Fig. 14. DIAGRAM OF FISH'S WINDOW 

these lines he sees the reflected bottom. Suppose 
there is an object at B. The fish can see this di- 
rectly through the water in a straight line, but he 
will also see this at B' reflected against the under 
side of the surface. The same is true of an object 
at A. A fly below the surface beyond A or A' is 
seen directly and also its reflection against the 
surface. 
Light entering the water at different angles does 
[ 49 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

not all have equal intensity; when the beam 
reaches the surface of the water it is more and more 
reflected as the beam becomes more nearly parallel 
to the surface of the water. I have indicated 
some of the percentages of light which enter the 
surface at a number of angles. These figures are 
taken from one of Tyndall's lectures. They are 
interesting to anglers as showing that objects near 
the water are not as well illuminated to the fish as 
those higher up. The small boy learns this early 
and crawls to the edge of the trout-stream. You 
will see from the diagram that light from above 
on an arc of ninety degrees reaches the fish from 
an arc of forty-one and one-half degrees; this means 
that objects seen outside the water are flattened 
in the fish's view. They are, of course, more 
flattened the closer they are to the water. The 
portraits of the author at the end of the tank, 
taken from below, compared with some of the 
other pictures of the same subject in the book, 
show the flattening effect. 

This phenomenon of the window from which 
the fish can see out is a very important one to the 
fly fisherman, because the window is not always the 
same size, but increases with the depth of the 
water above the fish. In very shallow water he 

[ 50 ] 



WHAT THE FISH SEES 

has a small window, and in deep water much 
larger. Diagram (Figure 15) shows the distance 



Distance Fish 
above surface 

5ft. A in. 


can see fly float 
of the water 


°3 

/Depth 
6ft. 


4-ft. 5 in. 






M'/z°/ 


5ft. 


3ft. 6 in. 








4ft. 


2ft. Sin. 








3ft 


1ft. 9 in. 








2ft 


^41/2° / 

lOin/ 








Ift 


5^m 








6in 




Fish 



Fig. 15. SIZE OF FISH'S WINDOW 



from the eye of the fish to the edge of his window 
at different depths. 

I have often noticed how close a dry fly must 
come to a trout in shallow water to have him take 
it, and in fact I have a moving picture of a rising 

[ 51 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

trout in shallow water taking natural flies on the 
surface, and a dry fly passing by him several times 
without his noticing it, because it was purposely 
cast too far away and outside his window. It was 
then made to float close to him, and he took it at 
once, because it passed within his range of vision; 
in other words, within his window. With this 
explanation we can now understand what was seen 
and photographed in the tank. I am not going into 
the debated question of the eye of the fish. It 
seems to me it is fair to assume that he sees the 
visual image which is really there and that he sees 
the same thing we do, with this difference: our 
eyes combine to make one image and give a stereo- 
scopic effect, while the eyes of the fish are inde- 
pendent of each other. He probably does not 
get any stereoscopic effect to help him judge dis- 
tance. This may account for some of the times 
he misses the fly. He sees a separate image with 
each eye. Perhaps the reason we find salmon tak- 
ing a dry fly more often when it is directly over 
them is that then they have two images of the 
fly and twice the brain stimulus. A fish's eye 
seems to have a very large pupil, and therefore has 
great light-gathering power, which enables him to 
see in the dark, or rather when there is a very 

[ 52 ] 



WHAT THE FISH SEES 

small amount of light. Under natural conditions 
it is never absolutely dark in the open. It would 
be interesting to have fish in absolute darkness and 
see if they could detect a fly; with bait they might 
be attracted by the odor. It is known that owls 
and cats and other nocturnal animals see at night. 
This is simply a question of a large enough light- 
gathering surface and sufficiently sensitive retina. 
It is like the night binoculars used by seamen which 
gather a large area of the light, thus assisting them 
to see on dark nights. Beyond dispute, fish have 
acute vision — often far too keen for us poor an- 
glers. I have often seen them frightened by a 
leader .004-inch diameter at several feet distance. 
They see the smallest gnats or midges. I have 
seen trout rising for flies invisible to me, except 
in certain lights, when they looked almost like 
floating dust. Our Maine Indians call these mi- 
nute midges "No-see-Ums." 

Looking up into the tank through the plate 
glass you see a segment of a circle within which 
you can see out to the sky and outer world, and 
surrounding objects, as explained before, are much 
flattened when they are near the surface. Beyond 
this circle you see the reflection of the bottom and 
objects resting on it. In some of our photographs 

[ 53 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

we had part of the bottom white and part black, in 
order to see the difference in appearance of wet 
flies against the different shades. Stones and tea- 
cups were also placed on it and show in the pic- 
tures. In the animal kingdom the law of color 
protection, which extends to both land and water 
species, is that the upper part of animals where the 
light falls most is dark, and the lower part light, 
where they are in shadow. By this means the 
effect of light is somewhat equalized and the animal 
made less visible. It would seem then, that to 
make flies visible our wet flies should have the 
opposite shades, that is, light on top and dark 
below; this is done in the Black Dose and Jock 
Scott. The fly when close to the surface being 
reflected perfectly, the light upper part will show 
up from below much more visibly in the reflection 
than on the real fly which is in shadow when 
seen from below. I have no doubt that salmon 
which "come short" so often are frequently pur- 
suing the reflection and not the real fly. They 
are more or less out of practice because they live 
in deeper water in the ocean where the reflection 
is not seen. Trout live always in the same kind 
of environment and become very skilful, but even 
trout make many mistakes. As a wet fly ap- 

[ 54 ] 



WHAT THE FISH SEES 

proaches the surface the real fly and the reflection 
come together, and at one time the fly appears 
just double size. Perhaps this is the point at 
which the fly is most often taken. When the fly 
breaks the surface the little waves form light con- 
densers and a brilliant flash or series of flashes 
results. This must be a great stimulus to the fish 
and he can no doubt see it a long distance off. It 
seems to me that the light effects of flies both at 
the surface and below are much more important 
in fishing than the design or color of the fly. I 
have certainly found this to be the case with salmon 
and have made it a practice to observe the direc- 
tion and intensity of the light while fishing. I 
know of one pool on the Upsalquitch where I can 
always get a rise at 3.20 p. m. in early August 
because at this time the shadow of the mountain 
passes, and the light is such that the fly suddenly 
becomes brilliantly visible to the fish located in 
rather deep water. We have all seen pools which 
yield fish if the cast is made from one side and 
never if it is made from the other, except at cer- 
tain times of the day. This is, no doubt, due to 
the lighting of the fly more than to its direction 
of motion past the fish. 
This summer one of my friends was fishing a 
[ 55 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

pool where the current strikes a ledge at about 
forty-five degrees angle. The salmon were lying 
along the ledge close to shore and his boat was 
anchored about sixty feet out in the pool. The 
fly was cast toward the shore and swung outward. 
A salmon came short for the fly six or eight times. 
I happened to be watching from the bank and 
noticed the light and thought that at the point 
where the salmon reached the fly it must be in 
shadow. My friend was about to give it up when 
I called to him to move the boat inshore and cast 
close to the ledge and pull directly up-stream. In 
this way the fly would be well lit. He did so and 
hooked the salmon on the second cast. This 
seemed a plain case of fly illumination. 

When the dry fly is floating high on the surface 
the fish can see only that part of the fly which 
punctures the surface if the fly is outside his win- 
dow. This generally means the hook or the points 
of the hackles. Each one of these breaks the sur- 
face and makes a miniature lens which catches the 
light. The fish sees these light spots a long way 
off. As the fly passes into the window it becomes 
visible above the surface and, as it is flattened in 
appearance, the higher it sets up the larger it ap- 
pears. If the dry fly is moved or strikes the water 

[ 56 ] 



WHAT THE FISH SEES 

outside the window it causes miniature light ex- 
plosions which are very visible at long distances. 
It is these which warn the fish of the approach of 
insect food and can scarcely fail to attract his 
attention. 

With dry flies the light effects are even more 
marked than with wet flies, because they rest on 
the surface, and have every opportunity of making 
the meniscus rise about the hackle or feathers 
due to the surface tension, and cause it to act 
as a light condenser which will make brilliant spots 
of light when seen from below. If the fly is moved 
on the surface beyond the window it makes bril- 
liant light flashes almost like explosions from the 
point of view of the fish. This explains the great 
effectiveness of Mr. La Branche's "bump cast" 
where he makes the fly strike the water and make 
several little jumps before it comes to rest, and 
floats into the fish's window. I have often 
watched him take many more trout than other 
anglers largely because of his ability to make this 
type of cast. In riffley water it is, of course, very 
taking, because it attracts attention amid all the 
disturbance when the fly might otherwise pass un- 
seen. I have used this on salmon also with great 
effect, and the method mentioned under the head 

[ 57 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

of drag or dropper fishing is based on this although 
I did not know it at the time. 

The dry-fly illustration (Figure 16) shows a dry 
fly at a distance showing only a light spot. As it 
comes nearer the light spots about the hackles are 
better seen, and as it comes into the window the 
fly can be seen against the sky. Note the light 
effects as the fly is moved. These show very 
vividly in the moving picture and are sharp flashes. 
Figures 17, 18, 19 show stiff Palmer-tied hackles 
on the surface both in and out of window, still 
and in motion. 

A winged dry fly of the Miller type is shown in 
the figure beyond the window, and coming into 
the window. (Figure 20.) The wings do not 
show well as they are light gray in color and do not 
stop the light sufficiently. The next illustration 
is a Whirling Dunn and with starling wing it 
shows up better than the Miller. (Figure 21.) 

A live grasshopper was placed on the water 
surface, and you can note the light effects he pro- 
duces as he kicks; no wonder he does not get very 
far when there are any fish. (Figure 22.) This 
shows why flies take fish. They give light effects 
similar to real insects. 

Our modern bass plugs with their screw pro- 
[ 58 ] 



WHAT THE FISH SEES 

pellers and all other means of breaking the sur- 
face of the water are based on this principle. 
Salmon will also take them. My son raised a num- 
ber of salmon on a bucktailed mouse this summer 
on the Restigouche, and in fact had several rises 
on one cast, but he was laughing so at the antics 
of the fish he could not hook them. He finally, 
however, landed two, just to show it could be 
done. It is well known that salmon readily take a 
spinner or spoon, sometimes even better than a fly. 

I have made some very interesting experiments 
with wet flies, covering the feathers with the 
aluminum foil. The reflection was better than 
with any other substance I have yet found. The 
flashes were vivid and the reflected image on the 
lower side of the surface of the water extremely 
bright. (Figure 23.) I have no doubt that flies 
of this type will be superior to anything else under 
certain water conditions, and I am most anxious 
to try them out again next summer. In high 
rough water such flies ought to be more visible 
and therefore take more fish. I have patents 
applied for on this type of fly. 

Leaders act as light condensers due to their 
semi-transparency and make both small flashes of 
light as well as long lines of light and dark lines in 

[ 59 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

the water. These effects are not similar to any- 
natural phenomena along the river, as there are no 
insects or plants which make light effects of this 
form. It is probably for this reason that leaders 
frighten salmon so easily. Why the difference of 
a few thousandths of an inch in diameter of a 
leader should make so much difference it is hard 
to comprehend, but watching the leaders in the 
tank showed that leaders smaller than .012-inch 
diameter were much less visible. It must be only 
a matter of degree, and experience has taught me 
that I can raise salmon on the fine leaders when it 
is impossible to do so with leaders of even .12-inch 
diameter. Let any one who questions this expe- 
rience try it out on the salmon river with leaders 
carefully gauged and he will soon convince himself. 
White gut acted as a better light condenser than 
the stained gut and made bright flashes on the 
water. The dark mist-stained gut proved the 
least visible of any I had been using, but even this 
seemed to act somewhat as a lens and to make 
some light flashes. It then occurred to me to try 
to make the gut opaque and less shiny. To do 
this I soaked white gut in a solution of silver ni- 
trate and then exposed it to light to turn the silver 
into minute grains of black metallic silver. This 

[ 60 ] 




Far outside window. 



Closer to window. 




At edge of window. Moving at edge of window. Note light effects. 




In window. Moving at edge of window. 

Fig. 16. GREY HACKLE DRY FLY 




Outside window. 



Moving outside window. 




Approaching window. 



Approaching window. 




Near edge of window. At edge of window. 

Fig. 17. BROWN HACKLE DRY FLY 




Fly pulled from surface. 



Fly leaving surface. 




At edge of window. 



Fly alighting on surface. 




In window. In window. 

Fig. 18. BROWN HACKLE DRY FLY IN MOTION AT SURFACE 




Fig. 19. BROWN HACKLE DRY FLY ENTERING WINDOW. NOTE LIGHT 
SPOTS CAUSED BY HACKLES BREAKING SURFACE FILM 




Hackles at edge, wings in window. 



Hackles at edge, wings in window. 




At edge of window. 



At edge of window. 




Outside window. Closer to window. 

Fig. 20. GREY-WINGED MILLER DRY FLY 




In window. 



Hackles outside window. 




Approaching window. 



At edge of window. 




Hackles making light spots outside of window. Tip of wings just showing in window. 

Fig. 21. WHIRLING BUN DRY FLY 




Still. 



Moving a little. 




After a kick. 




Kicking. Kicking. 

Fig. 22. LIVE GRASSHOPPER 




Foil on both sides of wings. 



Foil on both sides of wings. 




Foil on one side of wing. 



Foil on one side of wing 




Foil on one side only. Foil on one side only. 

Fig. 23. WET FLIES WITH ALUMINUM FOIL WINGS 




Leader .006 in. at surface and below. 



Leader .006 in. at surface and below. 




Whit deader flashing. 



White leader and same stained with silver nitrate. 




Mist stained heavy leader. Leader .020 in. mist stained. 

Fig. 24. LEADERS FROM BELOW THE SURFACE 




Vw 



'"V^-^ 



Fig. 25. SHADOW OF LEADER ON BOTTOM IN 5 INCHES OF STILL WATER 




Fig. 26. SHADOW OF FLY AND LEADER ON BOTTOM IN RIPPLY WATER 




Fingers just entering surface. 




Fingers below surface with reflection. 
Fig. 27. FINGERS IN WATER AS SEEN FROM BELOW 






Fig. 28. SILVER-GREY FLY IN WHITE WATER, AS IN RAPIDS OR UNDER 
A WATERFALL 






Fig. 29. BROWN HACKLE DRY FLY SUBMERGED IN WHITE WATER, AS 
IN RAPIDS OR UNDER A WATERFALL 




Water moving. 



Water moving. 




Water moving. 



Water moving. 




Water moving 



Water still, head close to surface. Teacups on 
bottom reflected against lower side of surface. 



Fig. 30. AS THE FISH SEES THE ANGLER. AUTHOR AT END OF TANK 

PHOTOGRAPHED FROM THE POSITION OF THE FISH UNDER 

THE WATER 




Fly and reflection against teacup on bottom. Fly and reflection further apart. 




Fly and reflection coming togethe 



Note wing flash. 




Note flash of tail. Note wing flash and leader passing surface. 

Fig. 31. ERECT WING WET FLY 




In motion on surface. 



Bubbles below surface. 




Brown hackle on surface from above. 



Bubbles below surface. 




Bubbles near surface. Moving at surface. 

Fig. 32. BROWN HACKLE DRY FLY CARRYING BUBBLES 




Outside window. 



At edge of window. 




Far outside window. 



At surface. 




Moving at surface. Bubbles at surface. 

Fig. 33. WHIRLING DUNN DRY FLY SUBMERGED CARRYING BUBBLES 




Reflection and fly together against dark bottom. Reflection and fly together on light 1 




Reflection and fly near light bottom. 



Reflection and fly near light bottom. 




Reflection and fly apart, light bottom. 



Reflection and fly apart, dark bottom. 



Fig. 34. ALUMINUM FOIL SHOWING REFLECTION, AGAINST DARK AND 
LIGHT BOTTOM, REFLECTED ON THE SURFACE 



WHAT THE FISH SEES 

made the leader a brownish color and also opaque. 
In the tank the visibility was less than half that 
of any other gut I have found. I want very much 
to try this out in comparison with the gut I have 
been using for salmon leaders. I believe it will be 
much better and take more fish. 

If the leader is on the surface, as shown in Fig- 
ure 24, it becomes very visible by the light-con- 
denser effects. The illustration shows a leader 
.006 inch on the surface, and the same under the 
surface where it is almost invisible, showing only 
a thin line. This has taught me not to oil the 
leader near the fly and let it go below the surface 
where it will be less easily seen. I oil it farther 
up to prevent it from sinking, so that I can easily 
retrieve my cast. In very bright sunlight and 
clear still water a leader even of a very small size 
will cast a very heavy shadow on the bottom, de- 
pending somewhat on the depth. But I have no- 
ticed a leader of .008-inch diameter cast a shadow 
as large as my thumb in two feet of water. This 
shadow often scares salmon extremely and they 
will not take a fly if it passes over them. Under 
these conditions the fisherman must either wait 
until there is no shadow or cast so that the fly 
only passes over the fish and not the shadow. 

[ 61 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

This can often be done by careful study and I 
have frequently taken fish in this way when it 
could not have been done if I had paid no atten- 
tion to the shadow. The illustration (Figure 25) 
shows the shadow of the leader .008-inch diameter 
on the bottom in about five inches of water. In 
the second picture the water is a little disturbed. 
When there are many waves they also throw shad- 
ows on the bottom, and the fish is accustomed to 
these and pays no attention to the shadow cast 
by the fly and leader. The two pictures of the 
fly and leader taken about the same point as the 
other two, show the shadows on the bottom. 
They are hard to distinguish from shadows made 
by the waves. (Figure 26.) 

When an object is part in and part out of the 
water, as a fisherman wading is, the fish sees the 
part under the water directly and its reflection 
against the surface upside-down. The fisherman's 
legs appear to the fish directly and upside-down 
and the body of the fisherman above the water 
appears through the fish's window. 

My fingers passed through the surface show 
directly and then an upside-down reflection, and 
you can see the hand outside the window above. 
(Figure 27.) 

[ 62 ] 



WHAT THE FISH SEES 

Flies in white water appear among the bubbles 
which are very brilliant in the bright light. A 
wet fly (Figure 28), as shown, is very visible against 
the bright bubbles and it is no wonder fish readily 
take them under these conditions. They must be 
very visible from below the bubble area which is 
generally not very deep. The brown hackle dry 
fly (Figure 29) is not nearly so visible among the 
bubbles. 

Figure 30 shows portraits of the author at the 
end of the tank taken up through the water. In 
some cases the water was moving with wind, and 
in others almost still. The fish sees anything from 
Raphael's Cherub through Cubist art to Hinden- 
burg, and all in rapid succession; no wonder he 
cannot always recognize me. The light shirt 
worn is almost blended with the sky in some of 
the pictures. This indicates that light clothes 
are less visible against a sky background. On 
the other hand no doubt dark clothes would be 
less easily seen against a background of trees or 
rocks. 

Figures to 31 show an erect wing fly with plenty 
of hackle below the surface. The large circular 
white spot is a teacup on the bottom of the tank 
reflected against the surface. The reflections of 

[ 63 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

the fly are very slight against the window, but 
when back of the window they are marked. Note 
the flash of the wing in No. 4 and No. 6 in Figure 
31. Also note the hole which the leader makes 
entering the surface. This fly was well wet and 
carried no bubbles. 

Figure 32 shows a brown hackle both below and 
on the surface. This fly is carrying bubbles when 
below the surface and you can see their light effects. 
No. 3 is the same fly photographed on the surface 
of the tank from above. 

Figure 33 shows a Whirling Dunn. No. 1 shows 
the bubbles carried down and the light they give 
off. In Nos. 4, 5, 6 the fly is in motion; naturally 
the light flashes are more brilliant. 

Figure 34 shows two pairs of my aluminum foil 
winged flies. 

Every one has noticed that he is more likely to 
take a trout or salmon with a new fly than with one 
that has been used. This seems to be due to the 
new fly having stiffer hackles and making better 
light spots on the surface. If below the surface it 
may carry bubbles and be more visible. The fish- 
erman thinks the new pattern is better because it 
takes the fish, whereas the real cause of its superi- 
ority lies in its greater visibility. 

[ 64 ] 



WHAT THE FISH SEES 

What I have seen in the tank will have a most 
profound effect on my methods of fishing in the 
future, and I am sure I can now understand many 
of the happenings along the stream far better. It 
will be an added interest to study and try to under- 
stand fly fishing in the light of optical laws which 
govern what the fish sees. 



[ 65 ] 



CHAPTER IV 

WET-FLY FISHING 

The wet fly is the regular orthodox way of fishing 
for salmon. It has been described in countless 
books and papers for many years much more 
vividly than I could possibly do it. Therefore, 
I am not going to tell about it fully, but would like 
to make a few suggestions which may be helpful. 

In a recent English book, "Animal Life under 
Water," by Francis Ward, the author attributes 
the attractiveness of a fly largely to the flash it 
gives in the water as it moves. He has taken under 
water photographs showing the flash which is due 
to the action of light reflected from it. I have 
no doubt at all that this is true and explains much 
we do not understand. My chapter on "What 
the Fish Sees" is an elaboration of this idea to- 
gether with further experiments of my own. Mr. 
Ward shows that a small fish in the water, due to 
the shining scales and colors, which act as mirrors 
in the water and reflect the surroundings, is almost 
invisible to the other fish. When, however, a 
fish turns and twists in the water, he catches the 

[ 66 ] 



WET-FLY FISHING 

lights and attracts the attention of other fish. 
The fly also catches the light, particularly if it 
carries air-bubbles along its feathers. I have fre- 
quently found that I caught more fish if I oiled 
my wet flies. They reflect the light better under 
water and carry down more air. You will often 
notice a fish come short to the fly, often several 
times. I find this may be due to the fact that 
from where the fish is laying the fly shows up with 
a flash as it passes him, but when he starts toward 
it, the light is such that the flash has disappeared 
and he is no longer attracted to the fly. Often 
in this case if the fly is cast from a different posi- 
tion, and led past the fish at another angle to the 
light, he will take it readily. In the chapter on 
the fly from the point of view of the fish, I have 
endeavored to make clear the part played by the 
reflection of the fly against the upper surface of 
the water when the fly is beyond the window of 
the fish and the water surface is still. If the fish 
is lying well below the fly, from where he sees it, 
the fly itself is in shadow, while the upper surface 
of the fly is brilliantly illuminated from above. 
The reflection is, therefore, from this well-lighted 
surface, and so is brighter than the real fly to the 
eye of the fish. He naturally starts for the most 

[ 67 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

visible object, which is the reflection, and tries to 
take it instead of the real fly. To the fisherman 
this fish seems to "come short." This, however, 
will not happen so often when the surface of the 
water is broken by waves or ripples. The reflec- 
tion is partially or even totally destroyed by the 
broken surface, and the fish, therefore, comes for 
the real fly only. All fishermen have had the ex- 
perience of missing fish in still water, and we all 
know that swift water is much easier and a surer 
place to hook them. Also, often when a fish 
"comes short" the fly is of the wrong size or the 
leader is too large and scares him. I have come 
more and more to think that the relative positions 
of the fly and the light to the fish have much more 
to do with his turning away. This is evidenced 
by the fact that he often takes it better if it is 
pulled faster as he comes toward it. The faster 
motion no doubt makes the flash in the water. 
Frequently salmon lying in the current pay no at- 
tention to a fly if it is swung past their noses on 
the turn of the leader, but the same fish will take 
it if it is pulled directly away from them up-stream. 
This must be due to the light effects, as a small fly 
must look very small indeed if perceived from the 
back. 

[ 68 ] 



WET-FLY FISHING 

The speed with which a fly nears and goes past 
a fish has everything to do with its attractiveness 
to him. At times the fly must move just as slowly 
as possible, with a steady motion. At other 
times it must be cast up-stream and drawn past 
the fish rather fast, then lowered back and drawn 
up a second time; this manoeuvre makes him come. 
I have never noticed any good results from shaking 
the tip of the rod. If you watch the fly in the 
water when some one is doing this, you will see 
that it does not affect the fly at all, as all the mo- 
tion is taken up by the line and leader long before 
it reaches the fly. 

I remember fishing one afternoon with Mr. 
Monell on the Upsalquitch in very clear water. 
We could see many salmon in all the good places, 
and he was giving me pointers. One pool had 
some brush and logs at the side and several fish 
were lying close to them. I made many casts for 
them and failed to raise any. He then took my 
rod and cast across the stream about thirty or 
forty feet above the fish and let the fly drift down 
with a slack leader. When it came about ten feet 
from the fish he raised the tip of the rod and 
tightened a little on the line. This caused the fly 
to swing across the current directly in front of the 

[ 69 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

fish, and when it had just passed them he pulled 
it up-stream slowly. A salmon rushed after it and 
was hooked and soon landed. In this way he took 
three fish where I had failed to raise any with the 
same tackle. This procedure made the fly travel 
in the proper way for these fish, but it also made it 
run much deeper in the water. Since that time I 
have experimented a great deal with the depth of 
a wet fly and find that this is often the deciding 
factor between success and failure. The fly can 
be made to run deeper by allowing it to sink before 
pulling it, or you can use a fly made heavier by 
being tied over a lead body. I use many of these 
flies, especially in small sizes from Nos. 8 to 12. 
These small flies generally move too close to the 
surface and it is hard to get them to move far 
enough down. In the Spring Pool on the upper 
Restigouche this summer, I noticed three salmon 
lying along the ledge where some spring water 
came in. They were about three feet under the 
surface. The temperature of the river was seventy 
degrees Fahr. so they were naturally sluggish. A 
dry fly or any kind of wet fly near the surface 
failed to move them. I then put on a very fine 
leader .006 diameter and a No, 12 wet fly and 
arranged a little fine lead wire at the head of the 

[ 70 ] 



WET-FLY FISHING 

fly. This was cast about twenty feet above the 
fish and allowed to sink, and pulled a little just as 
it came to the salmon. On the first cast I hooked 
one, and succeeded in hooking all three before 
we left. I am sure I could not have hooked any 
of them with flies near the surface. I noticed one 
of these fish turn and take the fly as it was dragging 
over the surface of the ledge, acting almost like 
a sucker. Several times this season I have fished 
swift water carefully with a wet fly when I was 
sure it held salmon, and failed to raise them. 
After adding lead to the fly and so making it run 
deeper in the water, I raised the fish. 

I believe that the preference which many anglers 
have for the double-hooked flies is caused by the 
fact that these flies are heavier and therefore 
travel deeper down than a single-hooked fly. I 
do not use them as they cast badly and make a 
disagreeable sound as they strike the water. I 
also find I lose more fish on them after they are 
hooked. 

All salmon fishermen know that when a pool is 
fished in the regular manner with a fly, it soon gets 
"stirred up" and no more fish will rise. The 
longer it is fished the less chance there is of taking 
any salmon. This is generally because the fine 

[ 71 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

and leader are below the surface of the water and 
scare the fish as they pass over them. And in fish- 
ing a pool with a wet fly the line and leader neces- 
sarily cover the whole pool. It is hard to realize 
the alarming effect of a line and leader on a salmon, 
especially if it is close to him. On the other hand, 
a line on the surface of the water has no such effect 
on him if it does not pass directly over him. A 
salmon probably will not move much from his 
position, but it will be impossible to get him to 
come after he is once alarmed unless a considerable 
time intervenes. It is probably for this reason 
that it is customary to rest a fish which had raised 
short. In my own experience I do this only if he 
has risen in such a way that I am sure he saw the 
line and leader; if not, I cast again at once. If he 
does not come again at once I try to make the fly 
pass the place at a different speed. Such a fish 
evidently wanted the fly. I cannot see why he 
should want it any less because he has made a try 
for it, but if he saw anything to alarm him, there 
is every reason for him not to come any more; 
the only chance is to wait until he has forgotten 
his alarm and returns to his former position. 

The place where a wet fly strikes the water with 
reference to the position of the salmon, is most 

[ 72 ] 



WET-FLY FISHING 

important for several reasons. If the fly strikes 
too close to the fish it may alarm him by the 
splash, while if it strikes the proper distance away 
the splash may serve only to attract his attention, 
and the light flash caused by the breaking of the 
surface may make him come. It is always well to 
begin putting the fly some distance from the place 
you know the fish to be, and if he shows no sign of 
interest, cast the fly so that it falls gradually nearer 
and nearer to the fish. How often have I watched 
fishermen beginning in a pool place their fly in 
the best place for the fish on the first cast, thereby 
scaring the fish so that they have no further chance 
of raising them. If they had only begun with the 
fly farther away and let it swing in, they would 
almost certainly have hooked the fish. 

Quite often salmon are very slow and want to 
see the fly an appreciable time before deciding to 
take it. You will raise such a fish when the fly 
goes by him slowly or works up and down in his 
sight when there is no chance of attracting his 
attention if the fly swings past him fast. I have 
over and over again fished a pool and taken a fish 
after my friends had just thrashed the water for 
a long time, simply because I knew the proper 
rate to have the fly travel for these particular 

[ 73 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

fish and how to cast it and lead it to make the fly 
go at just the proper rate when it was passing by 
where the salmon could see it. They complain 
that this is luck or black art. It is neither, it is 
simply years of observation and study and is no 
accident. A good fisherman must have a universal 
memory and be an acute observer. If your ex- 
perience has shown you what to do you can gen- 
erally find a way. 

People often ask if it is not difficult to play a 
good-sized salmon on a light rod and does not take a 
long time to land him. When it is properly done 
a salmon can be killed very quickly with a light 
rod, but it all depends on the way it is handled. 
The salmon is not usually a very strong fish, 
he makes rapid rushes and jumps, but soon tires 
if he is made to swim fast. With a light rod the 
trick is to make him swim as much and as fast as 
possible. Use the pull of the line to irritate him 
and not to check his run. Make him run more and 
never hold a fish hard enough to stop him unless 
he is going into some obstacle or around a boulder 
or log. Most fishermen try to fight the fish by 
holding him back. This is not as tiring as making 
him swim, particularly as making him swim against 
the current. The rod should be held vertical and 

[ 74 ] 



WET-FLY FISHING 

a constant strain kept up so he will never forget 
he is hooked and must swim all the time. The 
reel should have a light drag so that the fish can 
pull out the line with little effort when he runs, 
while the rod is still held vertical. In this way no 
excessive strain can come on the fly or leader. 
A very small pull will generally make a large salmon 
run; a sulky fish is a great exception. I have only 
had three or four in all my experience, and I have 
probably taken 2,000 salmon, so that this con- 
tingency need scarcely be considered at all. It is 
most necessary with light tackle to form a habit of 
winding the reel up properly and having the line 
perfectly distributed on the spool. This is done by 
guiding the line on the reel with the left thumb 
and forefinger. I have often seen fish lost by hav- 
ing the line carelessly wound on the reel barrel, 
usually too high on one side so that it falls over and 
makes a tangle. This checks the outward feed 
of the line and generally causes a break in the 
tackle. In large water it is no unusual thing for 
salmon to run 200 or 300 feet straight away, and 
I have seen them go 600 feet. I know they can't 
last long at this pace and do all I can to push them 
on. This summer we were called to lunch, and 
just as the other boat started, I hooked a good 

[ 75 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

fish. My daughter said: "That is a shame, we 
shall all be late." I said I should be along in ten 
minutes, and Mr. Regan laughed as he took out 
his watch. He said I could not land a fish in ten 
minutes. The pool was large and not swift. I 
held the fish very lightly and made him run hard. 
He jumped twice when I had him landed on the 
bank, when, by Regan's watch, it was seven minutes 
exactly. The fish was eighteen pounds and the 
rod six and a quarter ounces. 

Except for one sulking salmon I have never had 
a salmon on for an hour, and forty-five minutes is 
very unusual for me. Of course if you can get 
below the fish and make him swim up-stream, he 
tires very quickly. Gaffing is a highly skilled game 
and only the best guides never make a miss. When 
a salmon is pulled toward the man in the water, 
the fish pays no attention if the man does not move, 
and the fish can be brought up close to him so 
that a single stroke should do the gaffing, and the 
fish ought almost never to be missed. The guide 
should not try to gaff until he is. absolutely cer- 
tain of his fish. Instead of this the guides often 
walk up to the fish in the water instead of placing 
themselves in the proper place and letting the 
angler bring the fish to them. As soon as the 

[ 76 ] 



WET-FLY FISHING 

salmon sees them in motion he is badly frightened, 
and it is only when he is all in that the angler can 
bring him up. I have seen many salmon lost by 
just this mistake. 

I feel very sure that taking the season through 
I would lose many less fish on light tackle than on 
heavy tackle, and I believe I would land them more 
rapidly as a usual thing. This does not seem quite 
natural, but I have persuaded a number of fisher- 
men of the fact. 

There is one trick in handling salmon few fisher- 
men seem to know. I am going to give a couple 
of instances where it was the only way to save the 
fish and I hope others will try it. 

Returning from a trip up Gambo Lake to the 
Triton Brook one year, we found a large run of 
salmon coming in from the sea. The pool below 
the dam of the lake held a large number but most 
of the fish seemed to be located at the outlet of the 
lake just where the water passed through an 
eight-foot sluiceway. Below this was a pile of 
logs, and if the»fish went through the sluice every 
one was inevitably lost. A couple of fishermen 
had been trying to get them for two days and had 
not succeeded in capturing a single one. They 
told us to go ahead and see what we could do. I 

[ 77 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

looked the place over and made up my mind that 
I could not keep them out of the sluice if they 
wanted to go there, so that the only thing to do 
was to make them run into the lake where I could 
play them easily. Knowing that a salmon always 
fights away from the pull of the leader I stood on 
the dam and cast into the lake just above the 
sluice about twenty or thirty feet. As the fly 
came toward the sluice the salmon would rise and 
as I saw him come I threw a loose line into the 
rapid sluice. The pull of this line made the salmon 
rush out into the lake where I could fight him 
easily and keep him away from the sluice. I took 
seven fish in succession in this way and did not 
lose a single salmon on the sluice. 

Another instance of the same trick happened 
when my son took his first fish. It was on the 
Indian River at the tail of a rocky pool above some 
rough rapids. We were obliged to cast from a 
cliff about ten feet above the stream and could 
not move from our position without dangerous 
climbing. We could see a dozen or so salmon be- 
low us at the tail of the pool. Ashley cast out and 
soon hooked a ten-pound fish which ran up into 
the pool and was easily gaffed. He remarked that 
he did not think much of salmon as game fish; 

[ 78 ] 



WET-FLY FISHING 

they were too easy. I told him to just wait a bit 
and they would soon teach him something. The 
next fish jumped and ran into the pool and then 
started for the sea. He could not hold him and 
as he reached the white water he yelled : " What 
shall I do? I can't get him back." I told him to 
smash the tackle and save the line. When he 
was fitted out again he wanted me to show him 
how to save such fish. I soon hooked one which 
started to play the same trick. When he reached 
the lip of the pool I had a large loop of loose line 
ready and threw this past the fish into the rapid 
water beyond. The pull of the line at once turned 
the fish and he came back into the pool and was 
landed. I have used this trick many times and 
have often, though not always, succeeded in turn- 
ing salmon. It is surprising how seldom the 
salmon gets off and how many fish can be saved 
in this way in difficult places. This is a trick 
peculiar to salmon fishing and is great sport. 



[ 79 ] 



CHAPTER V 

DRY-FLY FISHING 

When one sees a number of salmon side by side 
as they often lie in the tail of a pool and watches 
a regular salmon-fly pass over them or past their 
very noses without any attention or motion on 
their part, except to move away if the fly or leader 
comes too close, one is tempted to wonder if these 
fish will really take a fly at all under these condi- 
tions. And yet it is these very fish at this time 
which will furnish the best of sport. For some 
reason they are in a state of mind where the wet 
fly does not attract them at all. Perhaps they 
have reverted to the mental state of parr, taking 
insects off the surface. Let a real fly or a small 
butterfly float over them and see how often one 
will rise and suck it in. It was observing this 
which made me try a dry fly, with not much success 
at first, because I did not know how to use it, 
but I soon made a proper cast, quite by accident, 
and raised a fish. The fly was a Greenwell's 
Glory No. 14 hook. I soon observed that the fish 
rose on some kinds of casts, but never on others, 

[ 80 ] 



DRY-FLY FISHING 

with considerable regularity. I was interested to 
discover which casts caused them to rise and which 
casts were wrong. The place was on the Indian 
River in New Foundland at the outlet of a lake 
where there were a large number of salmon. For 
a week previously they had bitten well, and we had 
had good sport, but suddenly, overnight, the fish- 
ing had stopped. Conditions had changed. The 
water temperature had risen to above sixty degrees 
Fahr. The fish were there, I could see them, so 
there was no use going anywhere else. If I could 
not get them there I had little chance elsewhere, 
so I settled down to find out how to catch them. 
The first thing to discover was what effect the 
leader and its shadow had on the fish. To dis- 
cern this, I tied leaders of various sizes, going down 
to the finest gut made, .004-inch diameter and up 
to regular salmon gut .020-inch diameter. I al- 
ways carry a small gauge for measuring the size 
in order to make the leader of the proper taper 
so it will cast well. I soon found when the sun 
was out I raised many more fish with fine gut, 
and those which did come up, almost invariably 
got the fly, while those which raised on the coarse 
gut, very often turned away just before taking the 
fly in their mouth; they seemed to see the leader. 

[ 81 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

The problem became largely one of fishing so 
that they would not see the leader. This can be 
done in two ways: first, by having it as thin as 
possible. This is not very practical because it is 
difficult to hoOk and land a fish of considerable 
size on a gut which will break under a strain of a 
pound and a half or less. The second way is to 
see if the leader could not be cast so that they 
would not see it so readily. I soon found this to 
be possible to a certain extent. If the leader ex- 
tends up-stream from the salmon for a couple of 
feet or more it is in a straight line away from him 
when he comes to take the fly, and he is not so 
likely to see it in time to avoid the fly. This is the 
key to dry-fly fishing for salmon. (Figure 35.) 
Have the fly float directly over the fish so that he 
will see it with both eyes and have the leader lead 
directly away from him. If the fly was pulled 
on the surface, I found that he was far less likely 
to rise, and a fly partly submerged almost never 
takes a fish. It must float on the surface of the 
water well up on the top of its hackles. You will 
notice in the chapter on "What the Fish Sees," 
pictures of dry flies in this position. The light 
effects are what attract the fish, because this 
is what occurs when natural insects float on the 

[ 82 ] 




Fig. 3d. A PERFECT DRY-FLY CAST FOR SALMON 




Fig. 36. A POOR DRY-FLY CAST FOR SALMON 



THE AUTHOR AND HIS SON DRY-FLY FISHING IN SLOW WATER 



DRY-FLY FISHING 

surface. Be this as it may, the fact remains that 
to be successful, you must either use the fly on 
top, or submerged. A dry fly pulled below the 
surface often works well. It seems as if the fish 
saw the fly on the surface and did not take it but 
decided to do so when it was being pulled away 
below the surface. Under some conditions, this 
method takes fish better than any other. One 
afternoon recently I hooked fifteen fish nearly all 
in this way and found it better than a dry or a wet 
fly used alone. 

In regular fishing I find that too many fish are 
lost by breaking the leader in hooking them if the 
size of the leader near the fly is less than .010. I 
have gut of this size which pulls four pounds, but 
this is very exceptional. The usual gut pulls about 
two to two and one-half pounds in this size. 
When I find that fish are not being hooked and 
are missing the fly I put on smaller gut. In order 
not to break this fine tackle, I have had made a 
special form of rod which is adapted to this pur- 
pose. It is ten feet six inches long, the greatest 
length which can be continuously used in one 
hand without undue fatigue. The weight is seven 
ounces without the extra hand piece below the 
reel which I use in order not to become too tired 

[ 83 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

in my left wrist if I hook a large fish and have 
to play him a long time. I can rest the butt of 
the rod against my body and get at the reel with 
my right hand without danger of getting the 
handle tangled in my clothes. Such a rod will 
not pull over one pound when the tip is up and the 
greatest strain possible put on the butt. This 
will not stop or turn a good-sized salmon but will 
tire him out quickly. Of course the pleasure of 
playing a salmon on good heavy tackle, and giv- 
ing him the butt and making him jump, is sacri- 
ficed to the pleasure of seeing him rise to the sur- 
face and hooking him, often at close range. But 
with this tackle I raise and hook many more fish. 
Such a rod works best with a tapered E line about 
.035-inch diameter in the heavy part. If it is well 
handled it will put a fly ninety feet and lay it 
down lightly. I have hooked fish at this distance 
quite often, and regularly fish at seventy feet with 
ease. The leader must be very long for dry-fly 
work, as I find the line floating over the fish or 
striking the water scares them badly. I use regu- 
larly a fourteen-foot leader with the large end about 
.020-inch diameter. Often I have found that this 
is not long enough and added three to six feet more 
finer gut. 

[ 84 ] 



DRY-FLY FISHING 

It is very hard for the novice to tell when the 
salmon is alarmed. He does not usually run away 
as does the trout, unless he is very frightened in- 
deed. If you watch carefully, the only thing you 
can observe is that he settles a little toward the 
bottom and often changes the motion of his fins 
and tail. When this happens a salmon will not 
rise and there is no use casting over him just then. 
On the other hand, if he begins to work his front 
fins faster and raises his head or whole body in 
the water as the fly passes over him, he is taking 
notice and will most surely rise to the fly if it is 
put over him enough times in the proper way. 
When I have seen him take notice I have sometimes 
kept at him an hour or so and almost invariably 
raised him to the fly. This is quite the opposite 
from the effect of a wet fly, which offers its greatest 
attraction when first seen, and the probability 
that he will take it decreases with the number of 
times the salmon sees it. It is for this reason that 
the old fishermen rest a fish which has risen short 
and are certain that they have more chance of 
taking him if he gets a fresh view of the fly after 
an interval. I feel that the warm water has, in 
some mysterious way, brought to the surface of 
consciousness the habits formed during the parr 

[ 85 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

stage of growth of taking insects on the surface, 
and that the adult salmon behaves in a similar 
way, driven on by these old habits which become 
his dominant impulse because he is cut off from 
his regular feeding on fish, squid, etc. 

It is on this theory that I have worked in study- 
ing the dry fly, and the remarkable results which I 
will describe later seem to bear out my conception. 
Dry-fly fishing seems to be regulated by the water 
temperature and the lateness of the season. Un- 
til the season of 1921 I had always supposed that 
dry-fly fishing was better the later it was practiced ; 
but this year about August 2d I found that in some 
places salmon would not take a dry fly when they 
had taken it readily July 12th to 15th. This may 
be due to the fact that this season was very ex- 
ceptional and the fish were much further advanced 
toward spawning than usual. In other years I 
have always had the best of dry-fly fishing on 
August 15th and have had excellent sport in New 
Foundland in September. 

It has been my experience that salmon do not 
take a dry fly well when the water is below fifty- 
eight degrees Fahr. and begin to take it well when 
the water is sixty degrees Fahr. The best dry- 
fly condition is with the water sixty degrees to 

[ 86 ] 



DRY-FLY FISHING 

sixty-six degrees Fahr. It may not be generally 
known, but the long Northern days warm up 
salmon rivers greatly before night. On one trip 
I frequently noticed a rise of ten degrees from 
8 a. m. to 5 p. m. The dry flies used are described 
in the chapter on tackle. The size seems to be 
very important; at times the small flies, even as 
small as No. 16, seem to be better while at other 
times very large flies as big as two-inch diameter 
seem to raise more fish. It perhaps somewhat 
depends on the depth of the fish in the water but 
more probably on the clearness and light at the 
time, or the background in view from the window 
of the fish. 

I remember one day fishing a run on the Upsal- 
quitch with Mr. Monell. The fish were in about 
two to three feet of water, and under a moderate 
current running rather smooth. The bottom was 
covered with stones of about a foot to two feet in 
diameter. I was using a small gray hackle of 
about three-quarters of an inch in diameter. He 
was using a larger gray hackle of the same pattern, 
an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half in di- 
ameter. We took in all about forty fish in the 
afternoon. Those I got ran from six to eight 
pounds, while those he hooked ran from ten to 

[ 87 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

twelve pounds. We did this in order to see 
whether the larger fly took the larger fish, and it 
certainly proved so in this case. Recently in the 
Restigouche I could only raise one fish on the large 
inch-and-a-half hackle, and got as many as I 
wanted on the smaller three-quarter-inch hackle. 
These fish ran from twelve to eighteen pounds. 
Another time at The Forks on the Upsalquitch on 
a clear hot afternoon, I could not raise any among 
a bunch of fish along a ledge with the three- 
quarter-inch nor the one-and-a-half-inch-diameter 
flies. I went into camp and tied the largest hackle 
I could, over two and a quarter inches in diameter, 
and immediately hooked three fish in succession. 
It will be seen from this that no general rule can 
be given for the fly to use at all times; a man must 
be a fisherman to know. He should experiment 
and find out the best size for each day. 

Recently I had a most interesting example of 
how the diameter of a leader affects the number of 
fish hooked. I was fishing the run above Jimmy's 
Hole on the Restigouche and took one salmon 
from the fifteen or twenty spread across the bar 
at the top in about two feet of water. The leader 
was twelve feet long and .014-inch diameter at 
the small end. I raised about twenty fish in sue- 

[ 88 ] 



DRY-FLY FISHING 

cession, but failed to hook a single one. They all 
seemed to miss the fly. After spending about 
three-quarters of an hour in this way, to make sure 
of the matter, I put on a thin end about .010-inch 
diameter and four feet long, making the leader six- 
teen feet long. This did two things: it made the 
leader less visible near the fly and it enabled me to 
cast the fly more gently on the water so that it 
floated up better on the hackles. The result was 
remarkable; I hooked seven fish in succession, miss- 
ing only a few of those which rose. This experi- 
ment satisfied me that my tackle had not been 
right in the first place. Another time, at the 
Nine Mile Pool on the Northwest branch of the 
Upsalquitch on a very bright clear hot day, we 
failed to get any fish in the run at the top but could 
see a large number about three feet below the sur- 
face in the centre of the pool in deep water. I put 
on a dry fly with a .010-inch leader and failed to 
raise any fish at all; I then got out a very fine 
drawn gut leader about nine feet long and .005- 
inch diameter, and added it to the other leader, 
making in all about twenty feet, and used the same 
fly, but took a very light 4-oz. trout rod so as not to 
break the fine gut. On the second cast I hooked 
a fish, and by holding very gently, finally made him 

[ 89 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

come down to the gaff in the shallow water at the 
tail of the pool. In this way I hooked and landed 
five, none over ten pounds or under eight pounds. 
A scow with horses then came through the pool, 
and scared the fish so that I could not get any more 
before we were obliged to leave. I was convinced 
that I could not have raised any at all in this pool 
with any ordinary leader. I never use a leader 
any finer than necessary, but always try very fine 
tackle if fish will not rise with my regular leaders. 
Of course I lose a lot of fish, but don't I have a 
good time doing it ! Recently on the Spring Pool 
of the upper Restigouche I lost five fish in succes- 
sion and then two more on the next pool, yet 
with all that I brought home two fish, which is two 
more than I should have had if I had not used 
fine tackle; besides I had a splendid day in place 
of a complete blank. The important thing to re- 
member in dry-fly fishing is that the fly must pass 
directly over the fish. Near him will not do any 
good at all. For this reason the angler must know 
just where the fish is. This is generally accom- 
plished by looking the pool over and seeing just 
where the salmon are located. It is an easy matter 
to do this with a canoe without unduly scaring the 
fish, and it often saves a lot of useless casting. 

[ 90 ] 



DRY-FLY FISHING 

Recently I carefully fished a ledgy pool where I 
had seen twenty-five fish the evening before, get- 
ting only one rise at the tail of the pool and miss- 
ing him. After two hours' hard work we drifted 
over the pool and there was only one fish in it, at 
the tail; the rest had moved on in the night. 
Sometimes the current makes past a jutting point 
of rock behind the corner of which is a sure place 
for a salmon, if there is one in the pool. Such a 
place is always worth trying without looking, be- 
cause if scared from there the fish may not re- 
turn for some time, and if he is there, he is almost 
sure to rise in such a place. 

Along ledges is a favorite place for dry-fly work 
because the fish are sure to lie in certain positions if 
there and the fly can be easily made to pass right 
over them. But it is at the tail of the pool that 
I love most to see them or in places where spring 
water comes in, because they are in plain sight and 
I can generally place myself in such a position that 
I can see them without alarming them at all. 
Very often I can get within thirty or forty feet of 
them and witness the whole performance. It 
happened often that both Mr. La Branche and I 
found it possible to take the larger number of fish 
in such a bunch; Mr. La Branche on one occasion 

[ 91 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

found seven fish together and got six of them be- 
fore dark. On another occasion I found three 
fish in about two feet of water and finally got all 
three, but as a general rule I expect to hook from 
ten to twenty per cent of the fish I cast over in 
this way. It is very rare that I cannot raise any 
of them, and then only when it is very hot and clear 
in the middle of the day. 

We will now transport ourselves to a salmon river 
in late July or early August and see just what will 
happen. The time of day will be 11 a. m., the pool, 
a long one with a ripply run in at the top and a 
deep-water centre and a tail-end with the bottom 
of stones of the size of your hand to two feet in 
diameter. 

We come to the pool at the top and I stand up in 
the canoe and let the guide paddle carefully, not 
using his steel-shod pole which scares the fish. 
We drift down the side of the current at the top 
and see no sign of fish. In the centre of the pool 
are several salmon in deep water along ledges; 
as the canoe nears the tail, we draw to one side 
and look carefully in a small depression caused by 
ice or a log jam. Here are six salmon with their 
noses pointing up-stream. The water is not over 
three feet deep at most and getting gradually 

[ 92 ] 



DRY-FLY FISHING 

shallower toward the land. We carefully back the 
canoe and pull it up out of the way and the guide 
climbs up on a projecting log where he can see the 
fish, and tell me if the fly passes over them and 
what they do. I get out my ten-foot-six-inch rod 
with a fourteen-foot leader and a gray hackle fly 
and wade into position. I always fish on my feet 
and wade if possible. A canoe is very hard to fish 
from with a dry fly because it scares the fish and 
because it is necessary to make a disturbance 
when you move. In dry-fly fishing the position 
of the fly, the leader, and the line are all of them 
important and it is hard to judge where to place 
yourself to get a perfect cast. Taking into con- 
sideration the wind and the current, which make 
a difference, I always start in well below the fish 
and to one side so that they do not see me at all. 
The diagram (Figure 37) shows the position and 
the banks of the river; my position will be about 
forty feet to the right of the fish and perhaps 
fifteen feet below them. I get out my line, casting 
in the air and up-stream, along the bank, until I 
judge that I have the right amount of line out, so 
that the fly will light three or four feet up-stream 
from the nearest fish and directly in line with 
him. The fly is well oiled with a mixture of albo- 

[ 93 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

lene and kerosene in equal parts and floats well; 
the leader and line are carefully greased with 
deer's fat and float on the surface. The fly is cast 




^£v~;> { Direction of Current 

^Irjs^r* 9 



Fig. 37. DRY-FLY FISHING WITH CURL IN LEADER 

with a curl in the leader so that it floats right over 
the fish. This is best done by shooting the line 
through guides and checking it with the left hand 
before the fly lights. This jerks the fly back and 

[ 94 ] 



DRY-FLY FISHING 

causes a curl. A little practice will soon teach the 
trick. The salmon seems to pay no attention to 
the fly, but his head rises visibly from the bottom. 
A second cast does not come so close over him and 
the guide says the fly is too near to me. I lengthen 
out the casts a little and place the fly just right, 
about two feet in front of him. As it floats down 
over him I see him rise and come rather slowly to 
the surface. As his head comes up I hear the suck- 
ing noise which is made by closing the gill plates 
and suddenly opening the mouth causing the fly 
to enter. I have been fishing trout too much this 
year and strike quickly and pull the fly away be- 
fore the fish gets it. It is bad work, and I have to 
take my punishment by waiting until the salmon 
resumes his position in the group. They generally 
take up almost the same position as before. I 
begin by casting again, and in a few casts the 
guide says "the fly is passing just over him." 
This time he does not rise directly up as before but 
turns after the fly has passed and gets below it, 
rises and takes it with a great rush. There was 
no missing this rise, and a lifting of the line sets 
the fly and the fight is on. He runs a hundred 
feet or so and jumps into the air about six feet 
clear of the water, tumbling over directly away 

[ 95 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

from me. This kind of leap is very likely to lose 
the salmon, as he almost invariably hits the leader 
with his tail when he jumps. There is a conviction 
among guides that the salmon always hits the leader 
and that he causes splits in his tail by so doing. 
The number of splits in his tail corresponds to the 
number of jumps. I have generally found this to 
be the case, but it may be only a coincidence. The 
salmon runs up to the head of the pool and then 
down to the deep water where he begins to "chug," 
as it is called; this is jerking the head against the 
pull of the line to loosen the hook. Salmon gen- 
erally do this when they are lightly hooked and 
often get off. I always dislike to feel it. The 
only thing to do is to hold them very lightly so 
they will not have much strain to work against. 
They generally soon stop and begin to run again 
if they don't tear out. The fish jumps a second 
time and makes for the end of the pool with the 
evident intention of going down-stream. I ease 
the strain on him as much as possible and run 
along the bank and get below him; this turns him 
up-stream, as they generally fight away from the 
strain on the line. Bearing right to the edge of 
the swift water he turns and goes up into the pool 
and makes runs, getting shorter and shorter as 

[ 96 ] 



DRY-FLY FISHING 

the strain of the line and fighting the current 
gradually tire him out. With the light rod it 
often takes quite a time to get a fish close enough 
to gaff; he makes many short runs as he sees the 
guide, but the pull of the line gradually brings 
him in and at last he is landed on the beach, a 
fine fifteen-pound fish. This is all right for a 
starter but there are five more fish there. We 
look and see that the disturbance of the pool has 
not caused them to move. Again I get into posi- 
tion for another cast and put the fly over the next 
nearest fish. Twenty casts or so fail to make him 
move in the least, so I cast a little farther over to 
the next two fish which are almost in line with 
each other; the second one moves upward, here is 
another chance for a rise. The fly lights only a 
few inches in front of his nose. He turns his head 
upward and instead of making a turn to take the 
fly he raises his head vertically upward and pushes 
his whole body out of water as far as the back fin 
with the fly in his mouth. The strike pulls him 
over and he seems astonished as he jumps at once 
four or five feet clear of the water, a fine fourteen- 
pound fish, and off he goes again across the pool 
directly over the bunch of fish I had been fishing 
for. This makes them restless and they take up 

[ 97 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

entirely new positions. While playing my fish 
on the line I watched them and saw one of the fish 
I had noticed in the deep water swim slowly down 
out of the pool and swing into line like a cavalry- 
man taking his position in the ranks. It often 
happens while fishing the pool that more fish come 
into view from the deep water. One never knows 
what a salmon will do next. This one just ran 
out of the pool and down the rapids so that I 
had to call for the canoe, as he already had out 
over 400 feet of my 600 feet of line. I got in and 
reeled up as the canoe rapidly overtook him. We 
soon passed him and the strain down-stream caused 
him to stop and turn up. The current soon tired 
him out and we brought him to gaff in a little eddy 
at the side. 

The fishing of this pool is characteristic of dry- 
fly fishing in July or August in low water. I 
could give various illustrations of endless incidents, 
but one experience I had this summer is so much 
more marked than any others that I shall take 
time to give it in full, as it shows the superiority 
of the dry fly over the wet fly in low clear water, 
better than any other story I could give. I have 
many witnesses to the facts as stated. The inci- 
dents occurred on the 11th, 12th, and 13th of 

[ 98 ] 



DRY-FLY FISHING 

July, 1921, on the upper Restigouche River below 
Kedgewick Junction. The water was very clear 
and low; the most unsatisfactory conditions in 
many years. One particularly hot day when the 
lower pools of our water were all empty but one 
(where I had taken two salmon from the eight in it), 
I decided to make a trip and see the fish in the big 
water below. As I passed the camp I saw some one 
on the porch and decided to ask if they were having 
any luck. Mr. B. was most polite and offered to 
show me the fish. He said : " We have not taken any 
in three days with four rods." When we got down 
to the bank he remarked that it was a pity that I 
did not have my tackle as I might try and see 
what I could do. I replied that I had my rods in 
my canoe, so he got into his gaspe and I into my 
canoe and we paddled down the current to the 
nearest pool. A brook comes in at the head of 
this pool and there were springs in a little slough 
at the side. Just abreast this in the cold water 
was an interesting sight — a school of salmon lying 
just below the surface extending for a space of 
twenty or thirty feet wide and perhaps 200 feet 
long, side by side in solid formation. I could not 
estimate the number. In size they seemed to be 
from twelve to thirty or forty pounds. It just 

[ 99 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

made me tingle all over. Mr. B. said they would 
not take a fly and there was no use fishing for them, 
so we proceeded to swifter water entering another 
pool. The second pool was a very deep basin 
with a very smooth run in it at the top. When we 
arrived the boat scared the salmon from the upper 
run and somewhat from the lower run, but I 
could see several fish under the current along the 
edge. It was an ideal place to take them with a 
dry fly. This pool had already been fished that 
morning with a wet fly without result. The water 
temperature was seventy-two degrees Fahr. at 
5 p.m. I called Mr. B.'s attention to a good fish 
visible along the current and put a gray hackle dry 
fly over him. He moved his fins and slightly 
raised his head. I remarked "he will come in 
a few casts." Mr. B. seemed very sceptical. On 
the third cast the fish rose, but I struck too quickly 
and missed him. He moved from his position and 
a few casts brought him up again, and this time 
there was no miss. I could not afford to make mis- 
takes even if I was excited. He rose slowly and 
I gave him plenty of time and hooked him well. 
As he ran out I handed the five-ounce rod to Mr. 
B. and told him to play the fish, which he did with 
consummate skill and landed him in ten or fifteen 

[ 100 ] 



DRY-FLY FISHING 

minutes. I asked whether he wanted any more 
caught and he remarked in forceful English "give 
them HELL." I had three more rods in the boat 
and began at the upper run where the fish had re- 
turned by this time. The second cast raised the 
fish and a few more hooked one. By this time 
Mr. B. had landed the first sixteen-pound fish and 
I gave him the rod with the second fish. He 
seemed to be having the time of his life. These 
two stirred up the run pretty well but there was 
an eighteen-pound fish waiting in the smooth 
current and he was soon hooked and Mr. B. was 
finally converted to the dry fly. I did not feel 
like imposing further on a stranger who had been 
so polite and, as the fish rose slowly, we went back 
to camp. On the way as we were passing the great 
bunch of fish in the spring- water I asked if I could 
break off a hook and show him how they could be 
made to rise, so that he could catch them later 
with my type of flies. He told me to "go to it" 
and hook all I liked. I felt like a convict released 
from prison. Looking at that bunch just made 
shivers run up and down my back. I got the canoe 
in position about sixty feet to the side and placed 
a nice cast over the edge of the bunch. What I 
had expected happened, several fish came at once 

[ 101 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

and they almost bumped each other, so none got 
the fly. The second cast was more successful 
and a nineteen-pound fish succeeded in beating 
the others to it. After one jump I handed the 
rod to Mr. B. who yelled for me to get another 
and called to the guide on the shore to bring Mr. 
A. down from the camp at once. By the time he 
arrived I was just hooking another fourteen-pound 
fish and Mr. A. got up to the boat just in time to 
take the rod and go off down the pool with the fish. 
Their two sons were in another boat just behind, 
so I took another rod and hooked one for them. It 
was a great disappointment that the smaller fish 
were always quicker than the larger ones, and as 
they composed the larger number, they always got 
the fly first. We only hooked a few fish of twenty 
pounds; most of them were fifteen, sixteen, eigh- 
teen pounds. But this is good fishing on light 
rods. We had three rods going all the time, and 
as one salmon was landed the rod was loaded with 
another fish in a few minutes. I lost all count, 
but the guides said I had fifty-four rises and hooked 
fourteen fish, of which they landed eleven. As this 
is about the usual proportion of rises to fish hooked, 
unless the angler is very lucky and skilful, I think 
it is probably a correct estimate. We finally 

[ 102 ] 



DRY-FLY FISHING 

stopped after two hours' fishing with eleven fish 
on the bank; more than the four rods had taken 
during the past week. Mr. B. remarked to Mr. A. : 
"You've been a damn fool and that is bad enough, 
but to be a damn fool for thirty years is the limit." 
We parted after a drink (which still takes place 
in Canada) the best of friends, and with an urgent 
request to return the next morning and bring the 
Judge, whom I had left at my camp, and have a 
great day. We were to be there at nine o'clock 
but were a little late and found Mr. B. had gone 
down the river to the pool we were to fish. I 
passed the big fish school with longing eyes and 
pointed them out to the Judge, but we were guests 
and did as we were told. Soldier's Gulch is rather 
a swift run leading into the head of a long pool. 
It is on a curve giving an excellent chance to wade 
on the inner side of the circle. Mr. B. had fished 
the run with three drops down the pool in a big 
gaspe boat with a wet fly; he had failed to raise 
any at all and was glad to see us arrive. Logs 
lay along the shore, and I placed the Judge, who 
had no waders, on one at the head of the run 
where he could cast easily over the best water and 
where I could see many dark patches below the 
surface indicating bunches of salmon. I went a 

[ 103 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

little below where I could use a dry fly along the 
edge of the current in the smooth water. It was 
not more than a few minutes before the Judge let 
out a yell for Mr. B. to come and take his rod and 
land the fish. I had to get out of the way to let 
the fish pass down-stream. Before the Judge 
could get his second rod in action I was in position 
again and had a fish hooked, which I handed to 
one of the boys who had come along. 

At this point I had the best record in dry-fly 
fishing I ever hoped to make; three casts and three 
fish hooked. Why not? I could see them and 
there were dozens of them in just the right place 
to take. The circus went on all the morning with 
three rods in action nearly all the time. With 
this light tackle it takes time to land a fish. One 
of mine ran 600 feet in one run and another went 
down nearly half a mile and was made to come 
nearly all the way back by my getting below him; 
then there were logs and foul-hooked fish, and fish 
where other fish hit the leader and broke it off. 
I know I lost five and probably more. I did not 
care though, as I was too excited and there were 
plenty more. Finally the game ended with the 
place all stirred up and no more rises. Seventeen 
fish we took back in the boats. 

[ 104 ] 



DRY-FLY FISHING 

After a most excellent lunch at the camp, Mr. A. 
seemed very anxious to join the game and see just 
how we did it, so I took him in my boat to the large 
bunch of fish just below the camp to give him a 
chance. The weather had become dark and a 
few drops of rain were falling. I knew what 
would happen. We got into position with the 
other two boats below us, parallel to the bunch of 
fish, and the show began. Mr. A. was not used 
to my single-handed rod and could not place the 
fly in the proper way to raise the fish, so both the 
other boats had fish on before we did, but my light 
two-handed rod exactly suited him. He soon 
hooked a fish with this, leaving in his own boat to 
land him and letting me take one for myself, as all 
the other rods had fish on. The one which finally 
got the fly seemed a big one, as it took out the line 
fast and I could not turn him at all. However, in 
half an hour or so we got him up to the beach 
and found he was a sixteen-pound fish hooked in 
the belly with a five-ounce rod on a No. 8 fly hook. 
I kept this skin for my Neversink camp. 

The next fish on the other rod ran at least 
500 feet before Mr. B. could get up to take him; 
when 650 feet had run out, I held rather tight to 
turn him, and the backing broke at the reel. It 

[ 105 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

had been on the reel for six years; I never expected 
to get out so much line. The line was oiled and 
floated on top of the water. Mr. B. rushed after 
it, picked it up and tied it to the end of his salmon 
line and reeled the knot down the guides and, by 
very skilful work, managed to land the fish and 
return me my line and leader. I never had that 
experience before. 

That day's catch was about forty fish for the 
six rods, but we did not have them all together at 
one time for a photograph, as the men had put the 
morning's catch in the ice-house. 

The next day was clear and hot, but we secured 
a good catch just the same of twenty-seven fish. 
The big bunch of fish was far more scary and diffi- 
cult to raise as the four boats near them kept them 
nervous. I have no doubt a single canoe, sixty or 
seventy feet away at the side, could have continu- 
ously hooked fish, with well placed flies. 

We parted from our new friends with the most 
cordial feelings and requests on their part to return 
another time. No party could ever have been more 
generously treated and entertained and we can- 
not thank them enough for giving us this oppor- 
tunity to test my dry-fly methods where there was 
an abundance of fish. I have always thought 

[ 106 ] 



DRY-FLY FISHING 

that catching salmon varies directly with the num- 
ber of salmon fished over and if the fishing was 
properly done over enough fish, they could always 
be taken, and there would be no blank days or 
possibly weeks. My recent experience has con- 
firmed me in the opinion that the old-fashioned 
salmon-fishing methods in low clear water above 
sixty degrees Fahr. are the worst possible way to 
take salmon on a fly. 

The rise of a salmon on a dry fly is a matter of 
great interest and I have endeavored to get a 
photograph of it many times. With the ordinary 
camera this only results in one view which may be 
taken any time during the rise. In the moving- 
picture film we took in August, 1921, fortunately 
we secured several rises on a dry fly and the pic- 
tures Figure 38 to Figure 47 show some of the suc- 
cessive stages of the rise and the striking of the 
fish. These are "cut-outs" from the film. You 
will notice the beginning of the rise and the in- 
crease in the size of the splash as the tail of the 
fish throws the water upward; then the tightening 
of the line due to the taking up of the slack 
which throws the drops of water into the air; and 
finally the fish hooked carrying the line up-stream 
and partly showing his back nearer to the fisher- 

[ 107 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

man than the original break. This particular fish 
was about twenty-four and one-half pounds when 
landed. 

There are many kinds of rises made by salmon, 
but this happens to be the only type we succeeded 
in photographing. I hope on my next trip to get 
many more such pictures. 

The illustrations (Figures 35 and 36) show two 
dry-fly casts made while wading rather deeply 
into a current which was not very swift. Be- 
low the fly are a large number of salmon which 
are visible in some of the moving-picture films. 
The cast (Figure 35) is one in which the fly 
is coming down not in advance of the leader 
but with the leader lying across the stream. Such 
a cast is not likely to raise fish where the water is 
clear and they are hard to catch. The cast shown 
in Figure 35 is a perfect cast for catching salmon 
in this kind of water. The fly is coming down- 
stream first and the leader extends up-stream from 
the fly for a foot or so. In this position it is end- 
wise to the eye of the fish and is less visible to him. 
The slack line shown is purposely cast in order to 
avoid any danger of pulling the fly and also making 
it possible to float it naturally down the current. 
It further takes time to take up after the fish has 

[ 108 ] 




Fig. 38. DRY FLY FLOATING DOWN-STREAM 




Fig. 39. BEGINNING OF THE RISE 



RISE OF A 24-POUND SALMON TO A DRY FLY 




Fig. 40. HEAD MAKES SPLASH 




Fig. 41. HEAD THROWS WATER 



RISE OF A 24-POUND SALMON TO A DRY FLY 




Fig. 42. TAIL BEGINS TO THROW WATER 




Fig. 43. TAIL THROWS WATER, HEAD DESCENDING 



RISE OF A 24-POUND SALMON TO A DRY FLY 




Fig. 44. BEGINNING OF THE STRIKE 




Fig. 45. STRIKING 



RISE OF A 24-POUND SALMON TO A DRY FLY 



Fig. 46. STRIKING HARD 




Fig. 47. HOOKED AND GOING UP-STREAM 



RISE OF A 24-POUND SALMON TO A DRY FLY 



DRY-FLY FISHING 

been seen to take the fly, and this insures time for 
him to get the fly in his mouth before the strike 
reaches the fly and pulls it away. A salmon is a 
large fish and makes a very visible wake and splash 
in the water, and very often a fisherman in his 
excitement pulls the fly away from him before he 
reaches it. On the other hand, when a salmon 
comes up straight from the bottom from deep 
water I have very often pulled it too late because 
they do not show in the water coming up vertically, 
and what the fisherman sees on the surface is the 
wake made by their tail after they have turned and 
gone down after having ejected the fly. This was 
the case one late evening in New Foundland in 
the Triton Brook, where I missed a large number 
of rises until my guide, who was above on the bank 
and who could see the fish as he came to the fly, 
told me I was striking too late. After that he 
called out when a fish was coming and I struck 
before I saw anything, and finally succeeded in 
hooking six fish in this way. These conditions, 
however, are very unusual; generally the fisher- 
man strikes much too soon, as the salmon usually 
carries the fly in his mouth several feet before 
letting it go. 
It is of course quite difficult to cast a fly as shown 
[ 109 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

in the illustration and no one can do it every time, 
but practice will enable a good angler to do it 
very often. I usually let the line shoot through 
the guides and check it suddenly when the fly is 
well above the water, this will make a good curl 
cast very often. Another way is to cast a little 
sidewise and check the cast in the air with the rod. 
Each angler must work this out for himself as 
each has his own cast and it is hard to teach one 
person's mannerisms to another. No one can hope 
to be successful in dry-fly fishing under hard con- 
ditions until he has thoroughly mastered the casts 
and can make them up to seventy feet distance at 
least. 

That there is some danger of getting into diffi- 
culties with light tackle is evidenced by the follow- 
ing story. Fortunately this does not happen very 
often. 

One day in the Forks Pool on the Upsalquitch, 
there were a number of salmon rising in deep water 
just at the end of the swift current. One would 
come out every few minutes, and they all seemed 
to be good sized fish. I cast for them with a 
wet fly in every conceivable way but could not 
get a single rise. It happened that I had a dry 
fly on a four-ounce trout-rod which I had been 

[ no ] 



DRY-FLY FISHING 

using on the grilse in the small pool above on the 
North West. I cast this out a number of times 
and let it float down the current where the fish 
were rising. At last one came at it with a great 
splash and was securely hooked. The Forks Pool, 
as the name implies, has two streams joining at 
the top. In the centre the water is about thirty 
feet deep. This fish ran across the pool and 
jumped, showing himself to be about twenty pounds 
in size. Of course I could not pull him about much 
with a four-ounce rod, and he did about as he 
pleased. In a few minutes he retired to the deep 
water and just sat absolutely still. I pulled all I 
could, rapped the butt of my rod with my knife, 
changed my position, and pulled from another direc- 
tion, but it was all of no use. He was just like a 
log, and yet I could feel the fish. I sat down on a 
nearby log and watched, but nothing happened. 
The guides all came out to see me get beaten by a 
salmon and were having great fun at my expense. 
At last I suggested that they take two canoes and 
their steel-shod poles and go out in the pool and 
throw the poles down to the bottom and start the 
salmon. Two of the guides waded out in the tail 
of the pool to keep him from going out, as they 
said when he started he would certainly go down- 

C HI ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

stream. They threw the poles over and over 
again and we could hear them hit gravel bottom. 
Finally one hit near the salmon and he started 
straight for the tail of the pool. The men did 
their best, but he got by them and down he went, 
taking the line out so fast I thought he would get 
it all. He did get 700 feet before I got into a 
canoe. I only had 720 feet on the rod. We pad- 
dled after him. We were in such a hurry that I 
was in the stern and the guide in the bow. We 
rapidly gained on the fish, as he was not swimming 
very fast, and at last we caught up to him about 
a half-mile below in a rapid smooth run near a 
bank. The guide got out the gaff and as we passed 
over him made a lunge and gaffed the fish, but 
just as he raised him up the canoe passed under 
a projecting spruce log we neither of us had seen, 
as we had our eyes on the fish. As he raised 
up, the log caught him in the back of the neck and 
knocked him flat on the bottom of the canoe with 
the struggling salmon on his chest. I managed 
to save both the salmon and the rod, but the guide 
was a wreck for a couple of days. The fish was 
a hook-bill male, nineteen and one-half pounds. 
They tell me these sulking fish are generally males. 

[ 112 ] 



CHAPTER VI 

NYMPH-FLY FISHING 

In the late season during July and August, one 
often notices salmon rolling in the pools. By 
this I mean coming out at the surface of the water, 
showing their heads and generally their back fins 
before going down. They seem to be moving 
very slowly as if looking for food. Often if you 
are close to them you can hear the "suck" noise 
which they make with their mouth as they take 
something below or on the surface. At such a 
time it is often impossible to notice any flies on 
the top of the water and most people suppose the 
salmon are just playing around. Their behavior, 
however, is exactly like bulging brown trout which 
are known to be taking nymphs of the water insects 
rising to the surface. At such a time brown trout 
are most difficult to catch on a dry fly, while a 
small wet fly drawn slowly just below the surface 
with a fine leader takes them readily. This 
nymph-fly fishing, as it is called, has been the sub- 
ject of much study in England and many good 
descriptions of it have been written in recent years. 
The flies are often used without wings. 

[ 113 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

I do not claim that nymph-fly fishing is essen- 
tially different from wet-fly fishing with a small 
salmon fly, which all salmon fishermen use at times, 
but it was the realization of the fact that the salmon 
were behaving like bulging brown trout which 
made me feel that they were taking nymphs. I 
therefore adapted my fly and my whole method of 
fishing with this in view and did not fish in the 
regular wet-fly style of casting, drawing the fly 
across the current. I worked the fly as I would a 
nymph fly for brown trout and immediately had 
extraordinary results where I had been getting 
only a few fish before. It is the point of view and 
not the essential difference in the tackle which 
animates this chapter. 

One afternoon recently on the Restigouche on 
the Looking Glass Pool, there was a large number of 
salmon collected at the point where some spring 
water comes in near the head of the pool. For 
several days previously they had taken a dry 
fly readily and all the party had hooked all the 
fish they wanted. On the day I refer to, about 
five o'clock in the afternoon, the fish broke water 
all about, rolling and bulging, but they absolutely 
refused to take a dry fly, no matter what size or 
kind we used nor how we cast it. On the day be- 

[ H4 ] 




< 
o 

= 



o 



o 
z 

o 

PS 

O 
K 

<: 

w 
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NYMPH-FLY FISHING 

fore I had noticed a large hatch of small gauze- 
winged flies in the late afternoon. It occurred to 
me that the salmon must be after the nymphs 
of these flies and were taking them just below the 
surface. Fortunately I had some flies of this char- 
acter with me which I use on the Neversink River 
in the spring, and with which I have been very 
successful with rolling brown trout. They were 
on No. 12 and No. 14 Alcock Model Perfect hooks 
with quill body and two long tail hairs, a light 
gray blue hackle from an Andalusian rooster and 
with bluish-gray wings tied in an erect position 
at right angles to the shaft of the hook. Both 
wings are tied close together like the keel of a 
boat. The fly below the surface is just like the 
nymph when it opens its wings at the surface 
and flies away. I put on one of these flies and a 
fine leader about eighteen feet long and cast out 
where the fish were rolling, let it sink a little, and 
drew it very slowly towards me by stripping in the 
line with my hand. The fly had only travelled a 
few feet before I saw a wake coming towards it and 
a salmon took the fly, rolling exactly as I had seen 
the others doing. My guess had been correct 
and the problem was solved. My son Ashley had 
on a similar fly and he hooked a fish at about 

[ 115 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

the same time. From then on until dark we had 
salmon on about all the time. Of course we 
lost some, as we found it necessary to use the Hardy 
dry-fly trout leaders with the small end .008-inch 
diameter. These break at two and one-half 
pounds pull, so there was not a very great margin 
of safety over the pull of the rod and the reel, but 
by careful work we landed most of the fish. My 
son landed one forty-two inches long with a tail 
eleven inches across. He only weighed twenty- 
five and one-half pounds; earlier in the season this 
fish would have weighed thirty-five pounds at 
least. It took him down-stream half a mile or so 
before he got it in. Twice I stopped and tried dry 
flies without result, and several sizes of wet flies, 
all of the same pattern; I began with No. size. 
The guide was posted on the bank where he could 
see the fly and the fish; the first fish came within 
a foot or so of the fly. I then put on a No. 2 fly; 
he said they came a little closer, about four or six 
inches away. With No. 6 fly they came almost up 
to the fly. With No. 8 fly I hooked one lightly in 
the end of the nose and lost him after a little run. 
With No. 10 fly I hooked two, both in the edge of 
the mouth. With No. 12 fly or with my nymph 
fly I hooked several, and all inside the mouth — 

[ H6 ] 



NYMPH-FLY FISHING 

one of them almost at the root of the tongue, show- 
ing that he really meant to take it for food. While 
the erect wing style of fly was better than the 
regular salmon fly type, and took the fish much 
more readily, I could get fish on any of the regular 
flies or trout flies if they were small enough, Nos. 
10 and 12. I even tried a No. 16 and found they 
were just as anxious for that. Both my son and I 
were absolutely satisfied that these fish were tak- 
ing the larvae of flies, even if they were spitting 
them out later. Of course there was none in 
the stomachs, as they are almost closed at the 
throat. However, these fish were evidently tak- 
ing these flies as food, as I hooked them at the 
base of the tongue. Since they cannot eat solid 
food at this stage, is it not possible that they take 
these small flies into their mouths and squeeze 
the juice out of them at the root of the tongue, 
suck the juice into their stomachs and eject the 
fly itself ? The stomach of these fish often contains 
a brownish-yellow slime which would certainly 
not be there unless something entered the stomach, 
yet we find no solid food there. I believe they can 
and do take fly juice in large quantity whenever 
they can get it. One day on the Upsalquitch dur- 
ing lunch, I noticed a salmon in an eddy come up 

[ H7 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

twenty or thirty times. The eddy runs full of 
small flies. The salmon seemed to be feeding as 
would a trout; in fact I thought at first it was a 
large trout. When I had completed lunch I put 
on a very small black fly, caught the fish and 
examined it carefully. In its mouth were six or 
eight flies thoroughly crushed and in the stomach 
was a considerable amount of heavy yellow fluid 
and one fly. Next season I shall take a microscope 
to the river and carefully examine the stomach 
mucus and see if it contains the same cells as would 
be found in the squeezed juice of flies. If this is 
so, the age-old question of how a salmon lives 
without food and why he takes a fly is solved. 
Personally I thoroughly believe he does absorb 
the juice of flies; otherwise I do not see why he 
should take large numbers of small flies when 
there is a hatch on. Next season I am going to 
solve this question definitely. 

At Soldier's Gulch, August 5th, a dry fly failed 
to raise a single salmon and a wet fly down to 
No. 8 in size was equally unsuccessful. My Never- 
sink nymph fly fished over the same water just 
afterward hooked six fish, of which we landed four, 
and made a very successful morning. 

That same afternoon we took three fish on a dry 
[ H8 ] 



NYMPH-FLY FISHING 

fly, showing changed conditions within a few hours. 
It looks as if the nymph style of fishing was best 
when a hatch of water insects is coming on and 
the larvae are rising. Evidently the salmon have 
their attention on them and do not pay heed to 
anything else. 

I have always been surprised at the holding 
power of these small hooks. One day I raised a 
fish on a No. 14 fly. He immediately settled 
down and felt as if he was a big fellow. At the 
same moment my son had a fifteen-pound fish 
which had run across the pool below where I was. 
While he was standing on the opposite bank my 
fish went straight down the pool like a submarine, 
right under his line. Here was a chance to lose 
two perfectly good leaders, to say nothing of the 
fly and line ! I called for the canoe and paddled 
after the fish; it was my only hope. When we 
came to my son's line, I fished it up with the paddle 
and passed it back over the canoe and we were 
clear, my fish still making down-stream. After a 
half hour's hard fight, the fish finally came ashore, 
having towed the canoe all around the pool. I 
thought surely I had caught "Old Bill" at last, 
but it was only a twelve-pound fish after all, hooked 
in the belly fin. That No. 14 hook had held and 

[ 119 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

landed him after all the bad fishing we did. A 
No. 10 Model Perfect or No. 12 Limerick pattern 
is large enough to land any salmon in the later 
season if it is handled properly and has hold of the 
fish in a good place. I believe we all use too large 
flies in the later season with the feeling that we 
must have fair-sized hooks to hold the fish, and this 
makes us miss a lot of fish we might otherwise 
raise. 

Note 
It is often of interest to know the weight of a 
salmon when no scales are available. Mr. Wm. H. 
Ward many years ago worked out a formula for 
obtaining the weight of any fish by measurements 
alone. He gave it: 

girth 2 X length 
800 

This formula is very accurate but it is difficult at 
first glance to see how it was arrived at. Mr. Benj . 
F. Kittredge worked out the solution as follows: 

The area of the base of a wedge multiplied by 
half its length gives its cubic volume. The vol- 
ume of a fish in cubic inches would be the area of 
his middle section multiplied by half his length, 
which is the length of two half wedges. If you 
square the circumference of a given circle or square, 

[ 120 ] 



NYMPH-FLY FISHING 

you obtain a square which is sixteen times the 
area of the given circle or square. So the square 
of the girth of the fish divided by sixteen would 
give the area of the section of the fish at its girth. 
Multiply the area of this section by half his length, 
the length of one wedge, and you have the cubic 
volume of the fish. 

girth 2 X length 

= cubic volume 

16 2 

The specific gravity of a fish is about 1.15 so that 
twenty-five cubic inches of fish weigh twenty-nine 
of water, or one pound. So if you divide the 
number of cubic inches in a fish by twenty-five, 
you will have his weight in pounds. The formula 
becomes: 

girth 2 length 1 

X X — = weight in pounds 

16 2 25 

girth 2 X length girth 2 X length 



16 X 2 X 25 800 



[ 121 ] 



CHAPTER VII 
DRAG AND DROPPER FLIES 

A method of fishing which was first suggested 
by a guide has often proved effective when every 
other means have failed. There are some kinds of 
water and conditions of weather and season in 
which it seems the only way to catch many salmon. 
As it is good sport I often practice it, to the great 
surprise of regular guides who never have seen it 
at all. 

I equip the leader with a fine end about four 
feet long and on the end of this I tie an old fly 
which is worthless and has the hook broken off. 
Where the regular leader ends and the fine part 
begins I put a dropper fly on about three inches of 
gut. The fly is oiled like a dry fly. For this pur- 
pose any good-sized fly can be used; a Rube Wood 
seems very good but a gray hackle works well or a 
brown hackle. I suppose I prefer the Rube Wood 
because of my recollections of the great day's 
sport I have had with it, used in this way. 

For this kind of fishing rapid rippling water is 
necessary. The best place is at the head of the 

[ 122 ] 



DRAG AND DROPPER FLIES 

pool where the fish lie, just where the water be- 
gins to get deep. The fly is cast across the stream 
and the rod held high up so that the drag is held 
in the current and the dropper just allowed to 
touch the water, jumping from wave to wave. 

The salmon will rise for the dropper like small 
brook trout and make a great splash. It will be 
found hard to hook them as many come short 
and they make such a show that the angler nearly 
always pulls the fly away from them too soon. 
However, he can soon get used to it. One day 
at the Forks on the Upsalquitch I hooked five large 
salmon in succession in this way when I had failed 
to raise them by any other method for half a day. 
At the narrows on Gambo Lake in New Foundland 
it was the only way we could take the fish, and 
by this means we got ten or twelve a day apiece. 

It is only under certain water conditions that 
this method is necessary but when it does work 
there is no way in which the salmon fisherman can 
have so much fun, because the fish rise only fifteen 
or twenty feet away from him and he sees the whole 
action clearly. I would rather catch a salmon in 
this way than in any other way I know except on a 
dry fly. I naturally prefer the dry fly because of 
the high degree of skill necessary in order to fish 

[ 123 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

it properly. The drag fly without any hook and 
on fine gut is used to avoid the danger of taking 
two salmon at once, which would surely smash the 
tackle, and also to avoid the probability of getting 
fast in a snag while playing the fish hooked on 
the upper fly. The bottom fly simply drags in 
the water and holds the leader out taut above the 
water so that the dropper fly can be made to just 
touch the surface, and the light effects caused by 
this dribbling as seen by the fish attract him. The 
best way to cast is to place the line across the 
stream and hold the rod up, letting the line pull 
around straight with the dropper just touching the 
surface. 

Fine gut is used in order to be more invisible 
to the fish in the current. If the drag should 
'by any chance get fast to a snag or stone, the fine 
gut will break, and the hooked fish be saved. 



[ 124 ] 



CHAPTER VIII 

SALMON BREAKING WATER 

Any observant fisherman will have noticed that 
salmon break water in a number of different ways. 
No doubt most men let it go at that and do not 
realize that the kind of break may mean a great 
deal to their success in fishing. Careful watching 
may save much time and lead to the capture of 
many salmon which might otherwise be in little 
danger of being taken. 

For myself, I have long since divided these 
breaks into different classes and each has its sepa- 
rate meaning. The most frequent rise of the 
salmon at the surface is the round ring he makes in 
the water, similar to a trout or bass, but generally 
larger and more marked than either. This occurs 
when the salmon is taking something at the sur- 
face, or very near the surface, into his mouth. 
The ring is made sometimes by his mouth, which 
makes a suction close to the surface to take in the 
fly, or by his tail as he turns away, having taken the 
insect just below the surface. In either case the 
fish is feeding and the angler certainly ought to 

[ 125 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

make him come to a fly if he is skilful and uses 
the right tackle. If the fish is taking a fly off the 
surface, a dry fly surely ought to raise him. If he 
is taking larvae below the surface, a small wet fly 
on the nymph style of fishing will probably prove 
far better. In either case such a fish should be 
made to come to a fly if it is properly selected and 
cast. These fish are also often taken on a wet fly 
in the regular way. 

Next, you may notice a salmon rolling; that is, 
coming to the surface and showing his head and 
generally his back fin. Such a fish is generally 
taking the larvae of flies just below the surface; 
he is a feeding fish. It is very rare when such a 
fish cannot be caught with a nymph fly or small 
wet fly. 

Sometimes the salmon break water with a great 
splash like a trout. This is when he has made a 
rapid rush for the fly from some distance away and 
is unable to stop when he gets to the surface. He 
also is a feeding fish, and ought to be easily caught. 

When, however, you see a salmon leap from the 
water his whole body thrown into the air, with 
his head up and gill plates and mouth closed tight 
and his throat drawn in, and fall upon the surface 
of the water on his side or belly with a great slap, 

[ 126 ] 



SALMON BREAKING WATER 

you need not waste any time fishing for him be- 
cause you will never get that fish at that time. He 
is in pain from the growth of the melt or roe sack 
inside his body and is jarring himself to settle the 
sack or break down some small lesion formed in 
the body cavity. In all my experience I have 
never yet caught a fish I saw jump in this way. 
You may get another fish in the same locality 
but not this one. This form of leap is much 
more frequent in the late season, when the sacks 
get larger and occupy more space in the body. 

I always watch all breaks with the greatest 
care, as they not only show the location of the 
fish, but often indicate just how to fish for them in 
the surest way. 



[ 127 ] 



CHAPTER IX 
FISHING STILL WATER 

Often during the late season — after July 1st — 
the salmon gather in large numbers in still-water 
pools, or if it is very warm, in spring holes off the 
main stream. At such times the regular wet-fly 
fisherman passes them by in despair, as he is almost 
sure to be unsuccessful if he tries to take them 
with his regular tackle. 

For many years fish in these places have baffled 
me and I have seen no way in which to take them 
on a fly, but constant experimenting finally enabled 
me to work out several ways of catching them, and 
for the last three years I have had great sport in 
just this kind of fishing. 

Naturally when the salmon are in perfectly still 
water they are very shy and are easily alarmed by 
any disturbance in the water whatever, so it is 
absolutely necessary to fish for them with very 
fine tackle. I find that I must use at least fifteen 
feet of leader, and I have much better luck with 
twenty feet. The last six to ten feet near the fly 
must not exceed .010-inch diameter, and very often 

[ 128 ] 



FISHING STILL WATER 

this is far too large, and the angler must use .008- 
inch or .006-inch diameter gut. Of course this 
means a light rod and line to handle it and the tip 
must be kept up all the time. Such tackle cannot 
be used on a regular salmon rod as the first strike 
will part it. 

The flies for this purpose are of two varieties'. 
The dry fly and the small wet fly, preferably of 
the upright wing pattern, or the wingless nymph 
pattern. In some pools, quite often a No. 10 or 
better a No. 12 salmon fly will do; Silver Doctor 
or Silver Grey is best usually, but the Wilkinson 
is also good. The nymph variety of fly is often 
preferably tied with erect wings or with folded 
wings. The method of fishing with these flies, 
however, makes all the difference between success 
and failure. It is necessary to cast a long line, 
usually not less than seventy feet. If a light sur- 
face wet fly is used, this should be slowly drawn 
through the water by stripping in the line with the 
hand. If after fishing a while you fail to raise 
any fish and still see them rising by themselves, 
try a fly with a heavier body and allow it to sink 
for a minute or so before you begin to pull it 
through the water. This causes the fly to travel 
at a lower level and gradually rise to the surface. 

[ 129 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

It is while the fly is rising that the salmon will 
probably take it. If you see fish follow the fly 
and not take it you may make up your mind that 
the fly is too large or the leader too heavy, or the 
fly is not pulled at the right speed. Change first 
one and then the other and see where the trouble 
is. If the salmon follows the fly he wants it and 
will take it if the fly and leader and speed are 
right. 

The use of a dry fly on a still water is far more 
difficult. After carefully greasing the line and 
leader with deer's fat cast out where you can see 
the fish or have seen one rise, and let the fly rest 
on the water a few seconds and then give the line 
a slight pull to make the fly move just a little as if 
the insect was going to rise and fly away. If this 
does not bring a fish draw the fly slowly over the 
water a little way and let it stop, then move a 
little and draw it in under the water rather fast. 
If the fish will take a dry fly at all these tactics are 
sure to raise one. Recently on the Kedgewick 
at Conner's Hole at the end of the season in August, 
there were a considerable number of salmon col- 
lected. When we arrived, several were rising at 
a time and it looked easy to get them with a dry 
fly. An hour's trial failed to raise a single fish. 

[ 130 ] 



FISHING STILL WATER 

A small wet fly slowly drawn well below the sur- 
face using a very fine leader got rises almost at 
once. That afternoon and the following day we 
took fourteen fish in this way from this pool. The 
largest was forty-two inches long, and weighed 
twenty-one and one-half pounds. He was taken 
on one of my regular salmon dry-fly leaders, the 
gut ending in .010-inch diameter to which was 
added a nine-foot Hardy dry-fly trout leader with 
gut .008-inch diameter. The salmon took the fly 
with a leap about six feet long and two feet out of 
water and came down on the fly just below the 
surface. He must have seen it a long way off. 
The fly was a No. 10 Wilkinson. Many of these 
fish will jump for the fly, but most of them suck 
it in just below the surface, showing their back fin 
as they do it. An old French guide with us told me 
he had been forty years on the river and had never 
before seen any fish taken in such still water. 
This would seem to indicate that this method of 
fishing was new to the river. I came back feeling 
that I could always get plenty of salmon if I could 
only find a good number of them in a still pool. 



[ 131 ] 



CHAPTER X 

CASTING 

I am not going to enter with great detail into 
the intricacies of casting, as a book could be 
written on this subject alone, but I feel that I 
should warn any intending salmon fisherman that 
no selection of tackle or good fishing water can make 
up for flies badly placed, or cast the wrong way, or 
not cast far enough to avoid scaring the fish. 
Good casting is not at all difficult to learn, and 
this being so, I am always surprised at how badly 
most fishermen do it. Of course it requires skill 
and long practice in order to do it exceptionally 
well, but any one can learn to cast reasonably well 
in a few days if he will only pay attention to a few 
important points. I am going to give a few sug- 
gestions as to how to learn in the hope that it may 
help my readers to have more fun on the stream. 
You cannot enjoy a salmon trip to the full unless 
you can cast well. You may catch a lot of fish 
if they are biting but you would get more and have 
a far better time if you cast really well. 

Most people seem to think they throw the fly 
[ 132 ] 




50. MR. LA BRANCHE CHECKING BACK CAST AT JUST THE RIGHT 
POINT FOR A PERFECT CAST 




Fig. 51. 



MR. LA BRANCHE CHECKING FORWARD CAST AT EXACTLY THE 
RIGHT POINT FOR THE DRY FLY TO FALL LIGHTLY 



CASTING 

and perhaps this term has some effect on their 
actions. They try to throw the fly as they would 
a stone and are surprised not to see it go far out. 
A fly is a very light object and cannot be thrown 
any very long distance. The reason that it goes 
long distances when cast, is that the rod imparts 
energy to the line, fly, and leader — all three. 
When the rod is stopped in its forward motion 
this energy must go somewhere and it gradually 
unwinds the line in the air, as each portion of the 
line comes to rest until it comes to the leader and 
fly. The fly is propelled far off by energy carried 
by the line and leader and not by its own velocity 
alone. It is evident that the line and leader 
must get their energy when the rod is moved for- 
ward. If they are to get it without loss and all 
the rod can give, the line must be straight back 
of the rod and not in a curl or loop. To get it 
straight and not have the fly or leader touch 
behind the caster the line must be cast high above 
the head and not down behind toward the water. 
In order to do this the motion of the rod must be 
stopped when it is about vertical as the tip even 
then will bend backward and tend to throw the 
line down behind. The hardest thing to learn in 
casting is not to put the rod too far back. This 

[ 133 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

knack can be acquired easily if the caster will put 
something between the upper arm and the body 
and hold it there by the pressure of the arm. Mr. 
La Branche suggests a glass whiskey flask and 
standing the caster on a stone. He says he will 
not raise his arm as long as there is anything in 
the flask. In this position the rod cannot be 
thrown far back and a good backline is easily 
secured. Turn and watch your backline and pay 
no attention to the front cast until you get a good 
high straight backline. After that the front 
cast is easy; just push the rod forward, increasing 
the speed a little at the end, and the line will shoot 
through the guides. A good cast will always pull 
the line in the guides and the fly will lay out 
straight. After you get so that you have a straight 
backline and can shoot the line six to ten feet 
through the guides on the first cast, you are on the 
way to cast properly, and like the Alderman who 
proposed putting only two gondolas on the lake in 
Central Park, I shall leave the rest to nature. But 
it may be asked how I know when I am casting well 
enough. With a six-and-a-quarter-ounce rod and 
proper line and leader any one ought to be able to 
cast seventy feet at least. A good cast would be 
eighty feet and an expert should cast ninety to 

[ 134 ] 



CASTING 

ninety-five feet. Only a few very skilful men can 
do better than this, probably not more than a 
dozen all told, using the regular fishing rig. No 
one should be satisfied with less than seventy feet 
with a single-handed rod, nor less than eighty to 
ninety feet with a two-handed rod with which 
the expert can cast 100 to 120 feet. It is very 
hard for the trout fisherman who is used to small 
water and short casts to realize the importance of 
not allowing the fly to touch the beach on the 
back cast. Such a blow generally breaks the hook 
where the steel is cut in for the barb. The fisher- 
man goes on using the broken fly until he raises a 
fish which he invariably loses. This summer I 
gave six small flies to a fisherman I met on the 
river, as he had none, and the salmon would only 
rise on the small sizes. Next evening I met him 
again and he complained that my flies were no 
good as he had lost four salmon and all of them 
had broken the hooks in their mouths. He did 
not cast properly and was hitting the flies on the 
rocks behind him, breaking the flies and so had 
been hooking the salmon on the broken hooks. 
When I showed him what was happening he was 
quite satisfied with my flies. 
The switch cast is most useful in salmon fishing 
[ 135 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

but I see it very little used. This cast is made by 
drawing back the rod slowly, leaving the fly and 
line, in the water. The line is drawn back until 
the line extending down from the tip of the rod 
hangs below the line of the rod itself about a foot. 
The rod is then driven forward throwing the tip 
almost down to the water. The loop of the line 
takes the energy from the rod and lifts the rest 
of the line and leader from the water and shoots 
it out. Very nice straight casts can be made in 
this way and good distance obtained. It is no 
great effort to switch cast sixty feet with a six- 
ounce rod when there are trees or rocks back of 
you; I have even made seventy or eighty feet under 
good conditions. The expert can cast just as far 
on a switch cast as he can on a straight forward 
and back cast. I do not know what I would do 
without this form of cast, I am sure I would never 
reach many fish I now get with ease. A very 
little practice along the line indicated will enable 
any one to learn it. As far as I have observed all 
the other casts are modifications and adaptations 
of these two. 



[ 136 ] 



CHAPTER XI 

ODD INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS ALONG 
THE RIVER 

You will have many queer experiences with 
salmon no matter how skilful you may think you 
have grown. Perhaps they are needed to humble 
your pride and bring you down to earth once more. 
One day on the Upsalquitch, Mr. Monell and I 
were fishing together. We made an agreement to 
fish in the following manner in order to see which 
was the best way to take the fish at that particular 
stage of the water. We were alternately to fish 
each pool with a dry and a wet fly. The dry fly 
was to be used over the pool first, because it would 
not disturb the fish. On the first pool it was his 
turn first with the dry fly. He caught one ten- 
pound fish and sat down contentedly to watch me 
try with a wet fly. I was on my mettle because 
he was always chaffing and making fun of me, so 
I fished my very best; it was no use, cast as I 
would, I could not start a single fish. At last in 
disgust I made the longest cast I could to the tail 
of the pool. Getting no rise, I threw the rod over 

[ 137 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

my shoulder and walked slowly up the beach letting 
the line and fly drag behind. I was discouraged 
with my poor success. I had not gone more than 
a few feet this way when I felt a terrific pull and 
was nearly rolled into the water; a large salmon 
had hooked himself. After a good fight he was 
later landed entirely by accident. 

At the next pool it was my turn to fish with the 
dry fly. The wind was blowing a gale up-stream 
by this time. I cast my best but it was almost 
impossible to lay out a dry fly properly. Finally 
one great gust of wind blew the line, leader, and 
fly over my head and up-stream in back of me 
into a shallow current. The fly no sooner stuck 
than a good salmon took it and hooked himself 
and was later successfully landed. Mr. Monell 
also caught one on a wet fly in a regular and 
orderly way, when his turn came. That whole 
day I did not catch a single fish as I meant to 
— all were flukes — yet when we got back to camp 
we both had the same number of fish and mine 
were a little larger. We agreed it was no use try- 
ing to learn anything about salmon. 

Another day, fishing Red Reef Pool with a dry 
fly, I brought a ten-pound fish up to the beach, 
and when we gaffed him we found the hook had 

[ 138 ] 



INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS 

parted in the middle and the hackle feather had 
been securely tied close to the ring of the hook and 
the other end near the bend, so that it had held 
on both ends of the feather with the two parts of 
the hook separated about two and one-half inches ! 
This fly was, of course, tied Palmer. This fish 
was really fooled by the feather. 

That same day a fish took the fly with a savage 
rush and made off down-stream so fast I could 
scarcely keep up with him along the beach. There 
was no time to get a canoe. When he turned at 
last I was all out of breath. After a half-hour or 
so I began to think I had hooked a really big fish, 
when he jumped, and I saw one of only about 
twelve pounds. I could not understand it at all. 
When he finally gave up exhausted and came in 
I found that the fish was simply lassoed around 
the tail with the hook hooked in the leader and 
not in the fish at all. This method of taking them 
certainly makes it interesting for the fisherman for 
a while. 

Illustrating how we never can tell what will 
happen, I was fishing on the Terra Nova River in 
New Foundland in a very rocky pool with a 
straight cliff wall on the opposite side of the stream. 
I raised and hooked a sixteen-pound fish which 

[ 139 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

ran straight across the pool and jumped high in 
the air against the wall of rock and hit the rock 
in such a way with his head that he fell down abso- 
lutely stone dead and was towed back across the 
pool. 

This same place was above some very steep rocky 
rapids where it was impossible to go in any way. 
If the fish went out of the pool there it was impossi- 
ble to get him back again as he went down over a 
small falls. To keep the fish in the pool if hooked, 
I stationed my guide at the narrow rock outlet 
with a large stick with orders to thrash the water 
if the fish came down that way and scare him back 
up-stream. I hooked a fourteen-pound fish which 
immediately made straight for the outlet. The 
guide was so busy watching me that he did not 
make any disturbance and the fish rushed out and 
over the falls. There was nothing to do but break 
the tackle; and the line parted next the leader. 
Three weeks later I returned and fished the same 
pool and again hooked a fish. This time the guide, 
who had had his lesson, kept the fish in the pool 
and we landed him. It was the very same fish. 
Along his side was a line where the leader had been 
rubbing against him in the current and had worn 
off the scales, and on the side of his jaw was an 

[ 140 ] 



INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS 

oval hole about half an inch long with round 
smooth edges where the hook had finally festered 
out and the wound was healing. There were 
probably 200 other fish in the pool at the time. 
It seemed queer that this one fish was the one al- 
ways ready for the fly. He was evidently what is 
called a "taking" fish. Some guides believe that 
there are some fish which always take the fly 
readily and others which never do so. This might 
seem true if it were not for occasional days when 
every salmon in the river seems ready to bite. 
I have seen several such days in my experience but 
they are very rare. 

A few years ago in New Foundland I had quite 
an interesting time taking salmon in a most un- 
usual place. The river I was fishing ran about 
seven miles from the sea to the first lake. There 
were few pools and the fishing was poor at this 
point. Between the first and second lakes there 
were a fine series of rocky pools where we had some 
fine sport. Above the second lake there was some 
good water but almost no fish. We wondered at 
this until a native told me they did not go up the 
main river above the second lake but all went up a 
small stream entering the second lake. We went 
to the mouth of this stream; it was not over fifteen 

[ 141 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

to twenty feet wide and with no great flow of water. 
There were a few fish where it came into the lake. 
We started up the small stream and had to drag 
the empty canoe about three miles, as I was 
anxious to see where the salmon had gone. We 
finally came to a large pool, really a small pond 
with water lilies all around the sides. The water 
was about ten feet deep and the bottom of fine 
gravel. We saw several fish rising. In this still 
water only a dry fly or nymph fly could be of any 
use. I finally took several fish from this pool. 
We followed on to the head of the pool and found 
six more of these small lakes all surrounded with 
lilies. All were full of salmon and we took all we 
wanted on a dry fly along the edge of the lilies. 
It was very similar to black-bass fishing in our own 
lakes. One of the fish caught was stained very 
yellow from the yellow mud under the lily pads. 
I visited this place two seasons and always found 
it full of fish; in fact it was great fun and quite a 
novelty in salmon fishing. 

One season on the Gander River in New Found- 
land we reached the mouth of the river just as a 
great run of fish was starting up the river in early 
July. The nets had taken a large number of fish 
and we expected to have great sport. We were 

[ 142 ] 



INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS 

bitterly disappointed, however, as we could not 
make the fish pay attention to the fly. We could 
see them all the time going over the shallows, but 
they would not take at all. In thirty miles of the 
river we only took two fish. Our Indian guide 
said they would not bite until they got to the 
place where they were going and there they would 
take. I asked where that was, as there was a large 
lake ahead and I knew I could not get any there. 
He said he would show me and he did. He took 
me to the corner of a small island about a mile 
below the lake and said: "Here is where they are 
going." It did not look like much of a place to 
catch salmon. The water was about three feet 
deep with a poor current and stones from one to 
two feet in diameter. I waded out and cast and 
almost at once hooked a fish. Before night I 
had taken seven and the following day we took all 
we wanted here and near by. Anywhere else in 
the river it was impossible to raise a fish. My 
only explanation is that just above this point a 
fair sized stream enters, known as Little Salmon 
River, and the cooler water may have affected 
them. Visiting the same place at the end of the 
season another year I found that the salmon were 
evidently going to spawn in two pools just above 

[ 143 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

here, as they were collected in large numbers. 
These fish reach Gander Lake about July 5th. 
The lake is almost like a figure eight, the outlet at 
the narrow part of the lake and the inlet opposite 
only a few miles away. The fish do not appear in 
the river beyond until well on in August. It is 
only a few miles across but they travel around the 
shores, a distance of eighty or a hundred miles, 
in place of going straight across. This is shown 
by their appearance at the mouths of other small 
rivers. 

One day at the home camp we had a scow drawn 
up in the pool. The water was very clear and we 
could see five or six salmon swimming about the 
centre of the pool in eight or ten feet of water. I 
thought I would see if I could hook one of them as 
they are particularly hard to get under these con- 
ditions. I put on a long leader and lead-bodied 
fly with erect wings and a No. 12 hook and cast 
out and let it sink about four feet, then drew it 
toward me slowly. One of the fish made a rush, 
took it, and was hooked. He did not jump but 
tore about the centre of the pool. The others 
seemed much excited, and one of them followed 
him alongside for some distance and then seemed 
to make up his mind what was the matter. He 

[ 144 ] 



INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS 

swam ahead of the hooked fish and then made a 
complete turn like a somersault right at the nose 
of the hooked fish; his tail of course hit the leader 
and broke it off. The whole action took place 
within thirty feet and we could see it all plainly. 
I wonder if some of the fish we lose where we cannot 
see them, do not get away in some such way, by 
the help of others. This case did not look like 
an accident. 

My son one day was playing a fifteen-pound 
fish hooked on a No. 8 fly. He was certainly 
hooked in the mouth as the guide saw him in the 
water. He made a swift rush and a turn and there 
was a sharp jerk on the line and then the salmon 
pulled much harder than before, but always 
straight away. After a while he came in and when 
gaffed it was found that he was hooked in the upper 
part of the tail. That salmon was clearly out of 
luck. 

At the Forks Pool in New Foundland on the 
Grand Codroy one season, the water was very clear 
and low about August 20th. There was a very 
large number of fish in the pool, perhaps a thousand 
or more, and they were lying in long rows along 
the ledges. We took a number on a dry fly and 
expected sport for several days. About five 

[ 145 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

o'clock it clouded over and looked like a storm. 
I was fishing the upper end of the pool and my 
friend, George Dart, was fishing the centre. He 
called me to come down to him. When I got 
there he pointed out in the pool to the fish which 
were gathering in a large circle about fifty feet in 
diameter. As they would not rise we stood and 
watched them. They began to move around the 
circle and seemed to get excited. As the first 
drops of rain fell they began to break water like 
porpoises, all in a ring swimming around quite 
fast, one after the other. The whole circle seemed 
full of leaping fish. This lasted for about an hour. 
When the heavy downpour started they stopped 
rising and we made our way to the camp as we 
could not catch any. Next morning there were 
scarcely any fish in the pool. The natives called 
this "a salmon circus," and they say it happens 
every once in a while when fish have been penned 
up for a long time by low water and are about to 
move up-stream on a rise of water. I myself have 
witnessed this performance twice, but I have 
never met another angler who has seen it. 

One day at the Eight Mile Pool on the Upper 
Restigouche the water was very clear and we could 
see everything in the part of the pool we were 

[ 146 ] 



INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS 

watching. There were only one or two small 
salmon but a number of good-sized sea trout in 
water six to eight feet deep. They would not 
touch our flies, and while we were talking trying 
to concoct some scheme to make them rise a red 
squirrel jumped into the water from the opposite 
bank and began to swim across the river. The 
largest trout made for him at once and coming 
behind him caught his tail and pulled him below 
the surface. The squirrel broke loose and strug- 
gled to the surface again with part of the hair of 
his tail gone. Again the trout caught him and 
a second time the squirrel got away with more of 
his hair stripped off. The third try was near our 
bank, and when the squirrel finally came ashore 
at Judge Van Etten's feet his tail was stripped 
like a rat's and he was completely exhausted. I 
know now that the hair on a squirrel's tail is his 
natural protection against sea trout. Such are 
the unexpected marvels of nature. 



[ 147 ] 



CHAPTER XII 

ADVICE ABOUT FISHING 

For those unfortunate mortals who have never 
tasted the joys of a salmon trip but who are just 
starting, I am going to give a little advice. No 
doubt the old hand will say he knows all this, 
and for them this book had better be finished at 
the last chapter. Still, even old campaigners can 
learn from each other; I hope to continue to learn 
to the end of my fishing days. 

Suppose we consider fishing a river entirely 
new to both guide and sportsman and see how we 
proceed. I do not believe in luck except in 
weather and the size of the fish hooked. Catching 
fish is a matter of knowing how and fishing cor- 
rectly all the time. In salmon fishing a good 
angler will always get fish and plenty of them, if 
there is any quantity of salmon in the river, and 
particularly if he can see them. There is no fish so 
sure of capture as the salmon if you know how to 
please him and are skilful in manipulating your 
tackle. 

[ 148 ] 




Fig. 52. 



MISS LUCY HEWITT HOLDING SALMON AT THE SAFE ANGLE TO 
SAVE LEADER 




MISS LUCY HEWITT HOLDING SALMON AT TOO LOW AN 
ANGLE. MAY BREAK LEADER 



ADVICE ABOUT FISHING 

For equipment in a strange river I always have 
the following outfit in the boat, ready for use at 
any time: 

A light fourteen-foot salmon rod rather flexible 
with light line. Leader fourteen to sixteen feet 
long with .012-foot diameter for the last three or 
four sections. On this I have a No. 8 or No. 6 
Silver Grey fly, depending on whether the river is 
high or low. 

Next, a single-handed rod ten feet six inches long, 
with extra hand piece below the reel, and with a 
light line and fourteen-foot leader with the small 
end .010-inch diameter and a grey hackle dry fly 
tied Palmer about one to one-and-a-quarter inches 
diameter, oiled. The line and leader are both 
carefully greased with deer's fat so they will 
float well. 

Further, I have a six-and-a-quarter-ounce ten- 
foot tournament model rod, with extra hand piece 
below the reel, equipped with about twelve feet 
of leader with the end .010-inch diameter or less, 
and with an erect winged nymph fly with silver 
body or a very small No. 12 wet fly, either Silver 
Grey or Silver Doctor. 

I also carry a leader with Dropper and Drag 
fly as described in the chapter on "Drag and 

[ 149 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

Dropper Fishing," ready for use in my hatband. 
This can be put on any of the rods if suitable water 
is found for using it. 

Equipped in this way, the angler rarely has to 
change flies or leaders and does not lose time nor 
use up the fine ends of his leaders putting on new 
flies constantly. 

Assume that we come to a pool coming down the 
river in a canoe. The canoe should be stopped 
about a hundred feet from the top of the pool to 
see how it should be fished. He should pay no 
attention to the guide but use his own judgment if 
he is to learn how to fish. If it is not too late in 
the season, the fish may be in any part of the pool. 
Take the fourteen-foot salmon rod and fish the 
run at the top carefully, first with the short line 
with the fly at the top of the water and next with 
the fly below the surface. Cast the fly across the 
current and let the current drag it around. The 
salmon will generally take a wet fly on the swing. 
When the line and leader are straight with the 
current, pull the fly up three or four feet and lower 
it again and pull up fast. This generally starts a 
hesitating fish and makes him come. When the 
pool has been fished down below the swift water 
with the salmon rod, I generally change rods, 

[ 150 ] 



ADVICE ABOUT FISHING 

as it is hard to catch fish with this tackle in 
the centre of the pool or at the tail if the water 
is smooth and slow. At times they take a salmon 
fly well but generally it scares them and they 
run up into deep water. If any fish can be seen 
try them with a dry fly as explained before. If 
they show no sign of motion, and you have not 
scared them by bad casting, try the nymph fly 
on the six-and-a-quarter rod. You must get above 
them sixty or seventy feet and cast across the 
stream, drawing the fly very slowly past them; 
watch out for them to dart out after it. If nothing 
happens after several casts, the fly is probably 
riding too high in the water. Take it off and use 
one with a lead body and let it sink much closer 
to the fish. This will nearly always start them. 
Sometimes they come short several times. In 
this case use a smaller fly. If they still come short 
and don't take it you will find the leader is too 
large and frightens them; it may be necessary to 
use one as fine as .006-inch diameter in order to 
hook them in clear bright low water. If you do 
you will have to be very skilful not to break it in 
hooking them. It can be done by just raising the 
tip, particularly on a ten-foot-six-inch rod and not 
striking at all. Hold the rod vertical so that all 

[ 151 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

the strain comes on the tip and you will have a 
good chance to land the fish if you are careful. 
A good angler can get about half the fish he hooks 
in this way, otherwise he would get none at all 
under some weather and water conditions. 

You will see from this that even in the same 
pool different tackle should be used as conditions 
change. It is impossible to fish all waters well 
with one kind of tackle. This can only be done 
in high water in the early fishing when all fish are 
in the swift water or in places with plenty of cur- 
rent to make the wet fly work properly. Later 
on only part of the fish are in this kind of water, 
while the greater number are in still water along 
ledges or at the tail of the pools. In these places 
the regular wet fly is not a good means of taking 
them and it is for this reason that so many salmon 
fishermen are unsuccessful during the later season 
at the very time when there are more fish in the 
river, and they should be having the best fishing. 

My advice to the man who wants to have a 
good time on the salmon river is first to get his 
tackle in good shape, with a proper assortment of 
flies, lines, leaders, etc., as described in the chapter 
on tackle, and to be sure his lines and leaders are 
well balanced to his rods so they cast properly. 

[ 152 ] 



ADVICE ABOUT FISHING 

He should then learn to cast really well with both a 
double and single handed rod; both are necessary 
and neither will fish all kinds of water properly. 
All the varieties of casts must be learned on ac- 
count of obstacles behind which must be avoided. 
It is here that skill becomes valuable. A high 
back line is absolutely necessary, as explained in 
the chapter on casting. 

There is no royal road to getting good salmon 
fishing continually. It requires genuine skill and 
perseverance, hard study and observation. A 
good salmon fisherman is the result of years of hard 
work and it is this which gives the sport its unique 
fascination. The degree of skill and knowledge 
required is far greater than any other form of fish- 
ing and the difference between the good angler 
and the poor one is more marked than even in 
trout fishing, where there are always a certain 
number of what I call suicide trout which will 
take any fly or bait offered in any way. This is 
not true of salmon when they are hard to catch; 
there are no suicide salmon, they are an unknown 
species. The angler must give him what he wants 
or go home empty handed. For this reason the 
salmon fisherman should go on his trip prepared 
for every kind of water and every mood of the 

[ 153 ] 



SECRETS OF THE SALMON 

fish he wants to catch. He must be able to fish 
low clear water and still pools and sluggish fish 
as well as rushing waters and hungry salmon. 
There are low clear waters early in the season some 
years and high water and almost spring conditions 
in August in other years. Recently on the Resti- 
gouche — after the lowest water and hardest kind 
of fishing — a rain raised the river so that the 
very last day of the season was by far the best 
day of the season for sport. Salmon took a fly as 
greedily as they ever do in the spring and there 
were many more fish in the river. The fisherman 
could catch just as many fish as he wished; there 
never was a better day. Wet flies of course were 
the best tackle, whereas they had been useless for 
the previous five weeks. It is for these reasons 
that I have written out my experiences in taking 
salmon under all conditions, so that my brother 
anglers can always have good sport if there are 
fish enough to make it, no matter what the weather 
may be. It is your duty, brother angler, to equip 
yourself with suitable tackle, and become proficient 
in casting, and to observe all you can on the stream. 
If you do not catch salmon when they are in your 
water it is your own fault, and not due to any 
other cause; you have only learned part of your 

[ 154 ] 



ADVICE ABOUT FISHING 

trade and it is for your own pleasure to learn the 
rest. I made a trip this summer with a very old 
friend of mine. On arriving at the Restigouche 
he was shocked at the low water and what he heard 
from the guides. I told him not to be discouraged, 
he would have lots of sport. When we returned 
home after two weeks with no rain in the mean- 
time, he said, on parting, that he had never had 
so good a trip or taken so many fish before; and 
this was in spite of the worst fishing conditions 
ever known. 

If my description of what I have observed and 
learned proves of service to my fellow fishermen, 
and helps them to enjoy the best of sport, I will 
feel amply repaid. May we meet along the stream, 
and if not there, then in the happy fishing grounds 
of the Micmac Indians in the hereafter. I only 
hope it may aid you if only in some small way to 
have as much pleasure as I have had on the rivers. 
On parting with one of our guides, as we left for 
home, he remarked: "When you die, Charon will 
have to stop the boat on the Styx and let you fish, 
he could never get you across the river." I only 
hope I may have one last chance to see if I can 
raise one there also. 



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